The new threshold will increase the minimum salary for a permit from the current level of 29,680 kronor to 33,390 kronor when it comes into effect in June 2026, and will also empower the government to exempt work permits for certain jobs.
Sweden's parliament approved the higher salary requirement by an overwhelming majority of 244 in favour, 55 against, and 50 absent, with the opposition Social Democrats joining the three government parties and the Sweden Democrats.
It approved the system of exemptions by a smaller majority of 187 in favour, 94 against and 18 abstaining and 50 absent, with only the Social Democrats opposing the measure.
Niels Paarup-Petersen, immigration spokesperson for the Centre Party, which opposed the measure, said it would harm Swedish businesses.
"As the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce said, 'this is idiocy'," he told The Local in a written statement. "This will make Sweden poorer and worse off. All because the Sweden Democrats love the smell of deportations in the morning."
The three government parties and their support party, the Sweden Democrats, reached an agreement last October which reduced the new minimum salary to 90 percent of the median wage, from the full median wage which had been proposed by a government inquiry.
The government has ordered the Migration Agency to present it with a slimmed-down list of job titles suitable for exemption by this Friday (March 20th), which the government will then use as the basis for the exemption list.
At a press conference earlier in March, the government said that it would exempt job titles in health and elderly care to make it easier for Sweden's regions and municipalities to recruit internationally.
The government took more than 20 months to move forward with the proposal after an inquiry recommended raising the minimum salary to the median wage in February 2024, due to strong opposition from the Confederation of Swedish Industry and also internally from the Liberal Party.
Sweden's Labour Minister Johan Britz, who represents the Liberal Party, in August last year called for the government to "pull the handbrake" on the proposal, with the Liberals only agreeing to back it when the threshold was lowered to 90 percent of the median salary.
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