Constantine Law launches innovative free tool to tackle Skilled Worker salary ‘minefield’
New technology aims to help employers and HR teams navigate increasingly complex Skilled Worker salary requirement rules
PRESS RELEASE: London, 6th October 2026 – Employers struggling to work out how much they need to pay sponsored workers can now use a new free online tool from specialist employment and immigration law firm Constantine Law.
The Skilled Worker Salary Assessment Tool has been designed to tackle one of the increasingly complicated parts of the UK sponsorship system: working out the minimum salary that applies to an individual role.
The firm says calculating the correct salary for a Skilled Worker has become increasingly difficult, with the answer depending on far more than the headline salary threshold.
The new online tool, the first of its type allows employers, HR and recruitment teams and sponsored workers to enter key information about a proposed role and receive a plain-English assessment of the applicable minimum salary.
The calculation takes account of factors including the SOC 2020 occupation code, weekly working hours, when the worker entered the Skilled Worker route, transitional arrangements, whether PhD points are being claimed and whether the worker qualifies as a new entrant.
Alex Finch, Partner in Constantine Law’s business immigration team, who conceived the tool, said: “This Autumn 2026 we anticipate confirmation from the Home Secretary on the implementation of earned settlement rules. This will be closely followed by the large population of those in the UK on work sponsored routes and their employers.
“For employers, calculating the correct Skilled Worker salary has become far more complicated than simply checking a minimum salary figure.
“There are different cohorts of sponsored workers, different going rates, transitional provisions and a range of circumstances that can affect the calculation. It is very easy to find a number without necessarily understanding whether it is the right number.
“We built this tool to deal with the routine rule-matching and to give employers a clear answer they can understand and verify, rather than leaving them to work their way through multiple tables and provisions.”
A growing compliance headache for employers
The complexity over the Skilled Worker route has changed since its introduction in 2020, leaving employers managing workers who may be subject to different rules depending on when they entered the route.
Salary thresholds increased significantly in April 2024, while transitional arrangements mean workers sponsored under the previous rules can continue to benefit from lower salary rates in certain circumstances.
Further changes in July 2025 increased the minimum skill level for new sponsorship, while existing workers can remain subject to earlier provisions.
This has created different cohorts of sponsored workers operating under different rules.
For employers managing an existing sponsored workforce as well as recruiting internationally, identifying which rules apply to an individual worker can therefore be a significant administrative challenge.
The calculation can also require employers to navigate hundreds of occupation codes and multiple tables of going rates, while considering factors such as the Immigration Salary List, Temporary Shortage List, PhD qualifications and new entrant provisions.
Constantine Law says its tool is intended to make this routine but potentially time-consuming calculation considerably easier.
No AI guesswork
Constantine Law is also emphasising that the tool does not use generative AI.
Instead, it uses deterministic, rules-based logic developed by the firm's business immigration lawyers and implemented with its technology team.
The same information entered into the tool will produce the same result.
John Hayes, Managing Partner at Constantine Law, said:
“Legal technology should solve problems, not create new ones.
“For employers, one of the frustrations with the Skilled Worker system is that the rules can be technically correct but difficult to navigate in practice.
“We have combined the expertise of our business immigration team with technology to take some of the routine complexity out of the process.
“Importantly, this isn't about replacing lawyers with AI. It is about using technology to make a repetitive calculation faster and easier, while leaving the areas that require professional judgement to the people who understand them.”
A first-stage compliance check
The tool is intended to provide an initial assessment rather than replace professional immigration advice.
It can be used for initial Skilled Worker applications, extensions and Changes of Employment.
Users enter the proposed salary, SOC 2020 occupation code, working hours and relevant immigration history. The tool then identifies the applicable minimum salary and explains the basis of its assessment.
It does not determine whether the employer has selected the correct occupation code, whether the role is genuine, whether sponsor duties have been complied with or whether an application will ultimately succeed.
Certain occupations, including specified healthcare, education and care roles and jobs where going rates are based on national pay scales, are outside its scope.
The tool is based on the Immigration Rules in force at launch in September 2026 and is supported by detailed FAQs and explanatory notes.
The firm has made the tool freely available and says that information entered by users is not saved to a user profile.
ENDS
For further information, please call.
Alex Finch
Business Immigration Partner
Constantine Law
T: 0203 696 8230
M :07887 289467