What Is the CSIT? Australia's Sponsorship Salary Floor Explained

If your business is considering sponsoring a skilled worker in Australia, one of the first numbers you will encounter is the Core Skills Income Threshold, commonly referred to as the CSIT. 

Understanding what it is, what it does, and why it changes every year will save you from one of the most common early mistakes in the sponsorship process.

What is the CSIT?

The CSIT is the minimum annual salary an employer must offer when sponsoring a worker under the Core Skills stream of the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482). It is, in simple terms, the salary floor for most employer sponsorships in Australia.

From 1 July 2026, the CSIT increased to AUD 79,423. The previous level was AUD 76,515.

There is also a separate threshold for highly specialised roles, the Specialist Skills Income Threshold (SSIT), which increased to AUD 146,576 from 1 July 2026. This applies to a narrower category of professional and technical occupations.

Why does it change every year?

The CSIT is not a fixed policy number. It is indexed annually on 1 July against Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings (AWOTE), the national wage data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

As wages across the Australian workforce rise, the migration salary floor rises with them. The purpose is straightforward: to ensure that overseas workers are paid at a comparable level to Australian employees, preventing sponsorship from being used to access cheaper labour.

This means the threshold will continue to increase each year. Employers who plan for this avoid the situation where a salary offered in good faith in April no longer meets the requirement by the time a nomination is lodged in August.

What does this mean for employers right now?

If your business is planning to sponsor a worker, the salary you offer needs to meet the CSIT at the time the nomination is lodged, not at the time you made the offer. A salary of AUD 77,000 was above the previous threshold. It does not meet the current one.

Timing matters, and so does planning ahead.

Frequently asked questions

Does the CSIT apply to existing sponsored workers?

The CSIT increase does not automatically affect workers already on a current visa. It applies when a new nomination is lodged, for a new worker, a renewal, or a change in circumstances.

Does the CSIT apply to the 186 permanent visa?

Yes. The CSIT is relevant to certain streams of the 186 Employer Nomination Scheme as well as the 482. If you are planning a permanent nomination, the applicable threshold at the time of lodgement applies.

Book a free assessment with Seven Corp to confirm whether your planned salary meets the current threshold before you commit to the process.

Next: meeting the CSIT is only the first salary test. There is a second requirement that most employers do not know about until it causes a problem.