Insights
Skilled Worker going rates vs real advertised salaries, by occupation
The going rate is the salary floor an occupation carries on the Skilled Worker route. This sets it beside what the same occupation actually pays and what employers actually advertise.
Last updated 11 Sept 2026. First published 11 Sept 2026. Every figure on this page is computed from the Applyfit database and recomputed daily.
In short
Of the 22 busiest occupations that carry both figures, 19 have an ONS median above the Skilled Worker going rate. The going rate is a floor, and for most occupations it sits below the middle of the market rather than at it.
26 occupations are eligible for the route but carry no going rate at all, because their pay is set by a national pay scale instead. Most health occupations are in that group.
Where the going rate sits against the market
The distance between the ONS median for an occupation and the Skilled Worker going rate for the same occupation. To the right, the median is above the floor: the typical worker earns more than the route requires. To the left, the floor is above the median, which means the route requires more than the occupation typically pays.
UK median pay minus the Skilled Worker going rate, by occupation
View these figures as a table
| Name | Difference |
|---|---|
| Generalist medical practitioners | £18,878 above |
| IT business analysts, architects and systems designers | £5,388 above |
| Solicitors and lawyers | £5,377 above |
| Mechanical engineers (professional) | £4,310 above |
| Quantity surveyors | £3,937 above |
| Data analysts | £3,672 above |
| Marketing and commercial managers | £3,603 above |
| IT network professionals | £3,307 above |
| Sales accounts and business development managers | £2,425 above |
| Quality control and planning engineers | £2,292 above |
| Programmers and software development professionals | £2,214 above |
| IT user support technicians | £1,728 above |
| Electrical engineers | £1,603 above |
| Financial managers and directors | £1,347 above |
| Managers in logistics | £1,243 above |
| Civil engineers | £966 above |
| Chartered and certified accountants | £862 above |
| IT project managers | £173 above |
| Senior care workers | £4,019 below |
| Care workers and home carers | £5,932 below |
The thirty busiest occupations
Every figure per occupation, with the sample each median is drawn from. An occupation code links to its own page, which carries the full pay distribution and the eligibility rules.
| Occupation | Open adverts | Going rate | UK median | Advertised median | Adverts stating pay | Clearing the going rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programmers and software development professionals2134 | 1,288 | £54,700 | £56,914 | £60,000 | 636 | 67% |
| Specialist medical practitioners and consultants2212 | 822 | National scale | £92,847 | £132,067 | 424 | — |
| Chartered and certified accountants2421 | 787 | £49,200 | £50,062 | £47,500 | 619 | 40% |
| Civil engineers2121 | 660 | £50,400 | £51,366 | £46,500 | 501 | 37% |
| Marketing and commercial managers2432 | 643 | £50,100 | £53,703 | £53,500 | 338 | 55% |
| Medical radiographers2254 | 625 | National scale | £48,439 | £52,951 | 186 | — |
| Mechanical engineers (professional)2122 | 606 | £46,800 | £51,110 | £47,000 | 424 | 50% |
| IT project managers2131 | 555 | £58,200 | £58,373 | £60,500 | 305 | 57% |
| Quantity surveyors2453 | 546 | £48,600 | £52,537 | £60,000 | 416 | 77% |
| IT business analysts, architects and systems designers2133 | 540 | £54,900 | £60,288 | £80,000 | 245 | 75% |
| Physiotherapists2221 | 460 | National scale | £43,532 | £44,995 | 238 | — |
| Solicitors and lawyers2412 | 449 | £51,600 | £56,977 | £55,988 | 176 | 68% |
| Managers in logistics1243 | 445 | £44,900 | £46,143 | £52,600 | 294 | 66% |
| Senior care workers6136 | 445 | £33,400 | £29,381 | £29,827 | 293 | 20% |
| Financial managers and directors1131 | 443 | £75,100 | £76,447 | £55,000 | 304 | 8% |
| Nursing auxiliaries and assistants6131 | 431 | National scale | £29,084 | £26,738 | 299 | — |
| Data analysts3544 | 422 | £34,900 | £38,572 | £45,000 | 197 | 74% |
| Registered specialist nurses2233 | 403 | National scale | £45,140 | £44,038 | 222 | — |
| Occupational therapists2222 | 397 | National scale | £44,040 | £44,235 | 282 | — |
| Electrical engineers2123 | 386 | £58,700 | £60,303 | £50,000 | 284 | 25% |
| IT network professionals2137 | 374 | £45,600 | £48,907 | £51,500 | 230 | 84% |
| Secondary education teaching professionals2313 | 371 | National scale | £47,632 | £44,965 | 188 | — |
| Care workers and home carers6135 | 366 | £33,400 | £27,468 | £26,596 | 94 | 6% |
| IT user support technicians3132 | 362 | £33,400 | £35,128 | £31,500 | 247 | 37% |
| Quality control and planning engineers2481 | 338 | £41,300 | £43,592 | £43,500 | 237 | 65% |
| Sales accounts and business development managers3556 | 328 | £55,200 | £57,625 | £45,000 | 140 | 32% |
| Generalist medical practitioners2211 | 321 | £36,616 | £55,494 | £87,500 | 84 | 83% |
| Cyber security professionals2135 | 315 | £48,500 | £54,647 | £65,000 | 166 | 78% |
| Chefs5434 | 314 | £33,400 | £30,010 | £33,390 | 202 | 50% |
| Registered children's nurses2236 | 312 | National scale | £41,963 | £44,782 | 165 | — |
Reading the three figures
The going rate is a minimum that applies to a sponsored job in that occupation. It is one of two floors — the other is the general salary threshold for the route — and the higher of the two applies. It is not a market rate and is not published as one.
The ONS median is a market figure: half the people doing that work earn more, half earn less. It covers everyone in the occupation, whatever their immigration status, and it is a year behind by construction.
The advertised median is the most current of the three and the least representative. It covers only the adverts on this site, only those stating an annual salary, and those tend to be the roles where an employer was willing to publish a number.
How these figures were produced
The thirty occupations with the most open vacancies on the site today. The going rate is the annual figure in Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Occupations for the newest version already in force. The UK median is the 50th percentile from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025, full-time gross annual pay, all regions.
The advertised median is taken from adverts on this site that state an annual salary — the midpoint where an advert gives a range. Pay stated as an hourly or a daily rate is excluded rather than annualised, because annualising needs a number of hours the advert does not give. A median is printed only where at least five adverts state an annual salary for the occupation; below that it is left blank rather than rounded into a figure the sample cannot support.
25,250 of 25,250 open adverts carry an occupation code (100.0%). Coding runs on new adverts as they arrive and is still working through the backlog, so the counts in the left column are a sample of each occupation, not a census of it.
Going rates for occupations paid on a national scale — NHS doctors, teachers — are published as scales rather than as one number, so those rows carry no going rate here and no share clearing it.
The full list of sources, the refresh cadence and what “estimated” means are on the methodology page.
Cite this
Applyfit, “Skilled Worker going rates vs real advertised salaries, by occupation”, updated 11 Sept 2026. https://applyfit.co.uk/insights/going-rates-and-advertised-salaries
Information from public records, not immigration advice.