CSIT vs SSIT 2026: Does Your Australian Job Offer Clear the Bar?

You have a job offer from an Australian employer. The role looks right, the salary sounds generous in pesos — but before you celebrate, there is one number that decides whether that offer can actually carry a Skills in Demand (subclass 482) visa: the income threshold. Australia sets a legal minimum salary that a sponsored worker must be paid, and if your offer falls below it, the nomination simply cannot succeed, no matter how qualified you are.

There are two thresholds you will hear about: the Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT) and the Specialist Skills Income Threshold (SSIT). This guide explains what each one is, the exact 2026 figures, the increase coming on 1 July 2026, and two traps that catch many Filipino applicants — the fact that superannuation does not count, and the rule that your employer must pay the higher of the threshold or the going market rate.

What CSIT and SSIT actually are

Both CSIT and SSIT are minimum salary floors set by the Australian Government for the Skills in Demand visa. They exist to stop sponsored migration from undercutting local wages: an employer cannot bring in an overseas worker on a salary that an Australian would not accept for the same job. For you as a Filipino applicant, they are a pass/fail gate — your offer either clears the bar or it does not.

The two thresholds map directly to two of the 482's three streams. The CSIT governs the Core Skills stream, which is the mainstream route most Filipino nurses, tradespeople and IT workers use; your occupation has to be on the Core Skills Occupation List (roughly 456 occupations) and your salary at or above CSIT. The SSIT governs the Specialist Skills stream, a higher-paid route with no occupation list at all and faster processing — if your salary clears the higher SSIT figure, you do not need to be on any list.

In short: CSIT is the floor for ordinary skilled roles, and SSIT is the (much higher) floor that buys you out of the occupation-list requirement. Knowing which one your offer can reach tells you which stream — and which set of rules — applies to you.

The current figures: CSIT AUD 76,515 and SSIT AUD 141,210

For nominations lodged in the 2025–26 program year, the numbers are fixed and worth memorising. The Core Skills Income Threshold is AUD 76,515. The Specialist Skills Income Threshold is AUD 141,210. The gap between them is large and deliberate: the Specialist stream is meant for genuinely senior, highly paid roles, not for routine positions.

Put those figures in perspective before you read your contract. If an Australian employer offers you a base salary of, say, AUD 80,000, your offer comfortably clears CSIT and you would be looking at the Core Skills stream (assuming your occupation is on the list). If the offer is AUD 70,000, it falls below CSIT and cannot support a Core Skills nomination as written — the employer would need to lift the base pay. And to reach the Specialist stream, the offer would need to be AUD 141,210 or more, which is well above what most entry and mid-level roles pay.

The CSIT figure of AUD 76,515 represented an increase of around 4.6% from the AUD 73,150 figure that applied when the Skills in Demand visa launched on 7 December 2024 — a reminder that this number moves, and usually upward.

The 1 July 2026 increase: AUD 79,499 and AUD 146,717

Australian visa salary thresholds are re-indexed every 1 July, in line with average weekly ordinary-time earnings (AWOTE). From 1 July 2026, the Core Skills Income Threshold rises to AUD 79,499, and the Specialist Skills Income Threshold rises to AUD 146,717.

Threshold	2025–26	From 1 July 2026	Stream it governs
CSIT (Core Skills)	AUD 76,515	AUD 79,499	Core Skills
SSIT (Specialist Skills)	AUD 141,210	AUD 146,717	Specialist Skills

Here is the detail that matters most: it is the lodgement date of the nomination, not the date a case officer decides it, that locks in which threshold applies. A nomination lodged on or before 30 June 2026 is assessed against the AUD 76,515 figure; one lodged on or after 1 July 2026 is assessed against AUD 79,499. If your employer's offer sits in the gap between those two numbers — for example, AUD 77,000 — the timing of lodgement is the difference between qualifying and failing. This is a genuine planning point worth raising with your sponsor.

Because these figures re-index annually, never treat any dollar amount in this article as permanent. Always confirm the current threshold on the official Home Affairs pricing and threshold pages before your nomination is lodged.

Why super is excluded, and the "higher of threshold or market rate" rule

Two rules trip up applicants who only glance at the headline number. The first: superannuation does not count. In Australia, employers pay compulsory retirement contributions (super) on top of salary. The income threshold is measured on your guaranteed base salary, excluding super. So a contract that quotes a "total package" including super can look like it clears CSIT when the base pay alone does not. Always check that the base figure — before super — meets the threshold.

The second rule is the one applicants forget: meeting CSIT is necessary but not always sufficient. The employer must pay the higher of the income threshold or the Annual Market Salary Rate (AMSR) for that occupation in that location. The AMSR is what an equivalent Australian worker would earn for the same role. If the market rate for your job in a particular city is, say, AUD 85,000, your offer must meet AUD 85,000 — not merely the AUD 76,515 threshold. The threshold is a floor; the market rate can push the real minimum higher.

For a Filipino applicant, the practical takeaway is to read the contract for two things: a base salary (excluding super) that clears the relevant threshold, and a figure that is also realistic for the role in the Australian city where you will work. If either is missing, the nomination is at risk — and a MARA-registered migration agent can help your employer benchmark the market rate correctly.

How to check your own job offer against the threshold

You do not need a migration agent to do a first sanity check on your offer. Work through these steps with your contract in front of you:

• Find the base salary. Look for the guaranteed annual base pay, and confirm it is quoted excluding superannuation. If the contract only shows a "package", ask the employer to confirm the base.
• Compare it to CSIT. For a 2025–26 lodgement, the base must be at least AUD 76,515; for a lodgement from 1 July 2026, at least AUD 79,499. Below that, the Core Skills stream is out unless the salary is raised.
• Check the timing. If your base sits between AUD 76,515 and AUD 79,499, the nomination ideally needs to be lodged before 1 July 2026 to use the lower threshold.
• Ask about market rate. Even if you clear CSIT, ask whether the salary matches the market rate for the role and city — that figure can be higher than the threshold.
• Consider the Specialist stream only if relevant. If your base is AUD 141,210 or above (AUD 146,717 from 1 July 2026), the no-occupation-list Specialist stream may be open to you.

If your offer clears these checks, you are in a strong starting position. If it falls just short, the fix is often simply a conversation with your employer about base pay or lodgement timing — not the end of the road.