Collective Agreements and Swedish Work Permits: What HR Must Understand

Why collective agreements are central to Swedish work permits

Sweden has no law setting a minimum wage. Pay floors come from collective agreements (kollektivavtal) between unions and employer organisations, and in 2025 these agreements covered 88% of all employees in Sweden (83% in the private sector).

For a work permit, Migrationsverket requires that pay, insurance and other terms are at least on par with Swedish collective agreements or with what is customary in the occupation or industry. This applies whether or not the employer has signed an agreement itself.

Two salary tests, not one

Since 1 June 2026 a first-time work permit also needs a monthly salary of at least 90% of the median salary published by Statistics Sweden: SEK 34,470 a month since 16 June 2026. Listed occupations and groups need at least 75% of the median instead. The collective agreement level can be higher than this floor, and then the higher level is the one that counts.

What counts as salary is the regular pay for the work, plus recurring overtime or inconvenient-hours pay if the contract states it. Benefits such as free food or housing do not count.

How the agreement is checked

• The contract names it. Migrationsverket lists the applicable collective agreement among the things the signed employment agreement must state, together with salary, working hours, overtime rules and holiday.
• The e-service asks for it. When the employer starts the application, it enters the occupation, the SSYK code, the salary and the date of the collective agreement.
• The union can comment. The employer selects the relevant trade union in the e-service so it can give its view on the terms. If the union declines, Migrationsverket decides itself whether the terms match collective agreements or customary practice.

Employers without their own agreement

The test is the same: the terms must be on par with the agreement that is normal for the occupation and industry, or with customary terms. According to Medlingsinstitutet, coverage is lowest in companies with fewer than ten employees. HR at an employer without an agreement should work out which agreement it benchmarks against and keep that reasoning with the permit file.

When the agreement changes during the permit

At an extension, Migrationsverket checks that the terms were met throughout the time the employee held the permit, so a pay rise in a renegotiated agreement that was never passed on can surface then. Migrationsverket can also run follow-up checks on salary and insurance while the permit runs. Some employers have a separate duty, set in the permit decision, to report worsened terms in writing within one month.

What the law itself sets

A few floors apply to everyone, agreement or not: 25 days of annual leave under the Annual Leave Act (semesterlagen), and ordinary working time of at most 40 hours a week under the Working Hours Act (arbetstidslagen), which agreements may adjust.

HR action checklist

• ✓ Identify the SSYK code for each work permit role before the application
• ✓ Find the collective agreement that applies (or is normal) for the role, and name it in the contract
• ✓ Check the salary against both the agreement and the 90% median floor
• ✓ Keep a note of which agreement you benchmark against in the case file
• ✓ Review pay whenever the applicable agreement is renegotiated, before the extension comes up

How Settio keeps permits on track

Most permit problems start with a date or a salary nobody was watching. Settio helps employers and immigration agencies watch both, for every person, before they move, after they arrive and at every renewal:

• Permit and salary monitoring tracks every expiry date and the salary each permit was granted on, and turns a dip or a missing month into a follow-up step with an owner.
• Plans for every case, from the first application to the extension, with each deadline counted for you.
• Your whole international workforce at a glance: import the people already on permits and see their risks in minutes.

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Sources

9 official sources

• Medlingsinstitutet: Lägstalöner
• Medlingsinstitutet: Kollektivavtalstäckning och organisationsgrad
• Medlingsinstitutet: Nästan alla stora företag har kollektivavtal
• Migrationsverket: Employing someone from outside the EU/EEA
• Migrationsverket: Extending a permit for an employee
• Migrationsverket: Förändringar i anställningen
• Migrationsverket: Kontroller under anställningstiden
• Semesterlagen (1977:480)
• Arbetstidslagen (1982:673)