Minimum wage in Sweden (2026)

How pay floors work without a minimum wage law

Swedish pay rules come from bargaining, not statute. A union and an employer organization sign an agreement for a sector, and it sets the lowest pay for each job, often with separate rates by occupation and age. If your employer, or your EOR, is bound by an agreement, those scales are the floor. If not, the law sets no number at all, and the contract decides.

That makes the question "what is the minimum pay in Sweden" one with many answers. We have not checked individual agreements, so we do not quote sector floors. What we can show is what employees are actually paid and the one floor that does come from government.

The SEK 34,470 rule for work permits

New work permit rules took effect on June 1, 2026. A non-EU employee must be offered at least 90% of the median salary, and with the median updated to SEK 38,300 from June 16, 2026, that is SEK 34,470 a month. If you plan to hire someone from outside the EU and EEA through an employer of record, price the role at or above this figure, or the application will not meet the salary requirement. It is not a minimum wage for Swedish or EU workers, but it is the clearest pay figure the government sets.

What Swedish employers pay in practice

Statistics Sweden's 2025 wage structure figures show the market rates. The all-sector mean was SEK 42,900 a month and the median SEK 38,300. Women averaged SEK 40,600 and men SEK 45,100.

Blue-collar workers in the private sector averaged SEK 34,200, almost exactly the work permit floor, while white-collar private staff averaged SEK 53,600. The full sector split is on the average Swedish salary page.

Employer contributions and what they add

Swedish employer contributions (arbetsgivaravgifter) are 31.42% with no ceiling: old-age pension 10.21%, general payroll levy 12.62%, sickness insurance 3.55%, labor market 2.64%, parental insurance 2.00%, survivor pension 0.30% and work injury 0.10%.

Two exceptions lower the rate. For employees aged 19 to 23 (born 2003 to 2007), pay from April 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027 is charged 20.81% on the first SEK 25,000 a month, which saves SEK 2,652.50 a month at that level (SEK 5,202.50 instead of SEK 7,855.00). Employees aged 67 and over cost only 10.21%. Holiday pay adds a supplement of 0.43% of monthly salary per vacation day, and agreement pensions such as ITP1 (commonly cited at 4.5% of pay, which we have not confirmed) come on top. Compare Sweden in the employer cost index.

Hiring in Sweden through an EOR

Ask any employer of record two questions before signing: is its Swedish entity bound by a collective agreement for your role, and is the agreement pension included in the quote? Both change your total cost. Published EOR list prices run from $99 (Native Teams, whose help center says EUR 99) to $699 (Oyster) per employee per month (EOR prices compared); Deel lists $599 (checked October 16 and 18, 2026).

Our Sweden EOR guide covers notice and the six-month probationary employment, Swedish parental leave rules cover leave costs, and our EOR rankings compare providers. For comparison, see Denmark, Norway and Finland.