Sweden has no statutory minimum wage. Instead, pay floors are established through collective bargaining between trade unions and employers' organisations. If you are assessing job offers or planning your budget when moving to Sweden, actual earnings depend on your sector's collective agreement, your specific occupation, and individual salary negotiations.

Sweden has no minimum wage law, and collective agreements set the floor

Sweden has no statutory minimum wage set by legislation. In Sweden the labour market parties — trade unions and employers' organisations — are responsible for wage formation, including any minimum pay levels. According to Medlingsinstitutet's guidance on minimum wages, many collective agreements contain pay rates for new hires, or for certain ages or qualifications.

A collective agreement (kollektivavtal) sets the lowest wage the employees covered by it can be paid. The agreement also applies to employees who are not union members but work at a workplace that has a collective agreement. Collective agreements largely define pay levels, and within that framework you and your employer usually negotiate your salary individually. Statistics Sweden (Statistiska centralbyrån, or SCB) has no statistics on starting salaries and refers people to the trade union or the industry organisation instead.

How many employees a collective agreement covers

In 2025, 88 per cent of all employees in Sweden were covered by a collective agreement. In the private sector, coverage stood at 83 per cent in 2025.

Coverage varies significantly with company size. In private firms with 1 to 9 employees, only 44 per cent of employees were covered in 2025. Of the roughly 545,000 employees working without a collective agreement across the country, about 276,000 — nearly half — work in these small firms.

The EU minimum wage directive and Sweden

The EU minimum wage directive, Directive (EU) 2022/2041 on adequate minimum wages, does not require member states to introduce statutory minimum wages. Every member state must instead report certain data on minimum wage protection and lowest wages every second year. In Sweden, the National Mediation Office (Medlingsinstitutet) sends this information to the European Commission, and Sweden's first report was submitted at the end of September 2025.

On 11 November 2025, the EU Court of Justice annulled parts of Article 5 of the minimum wage directive, finding that the EU lacks the power to legislate in those areas. The Swedish government states that Article 5, which governs procedures for setting statutory minimum wages, does not apply to Sweden because Sweden has no statutory minimum wages.

How pay rises are set — the industry norm

Since the Industrial Agreement was signed in 1997, the agreements in the internationally exposed sector have set the norm — known as the märket (the mark) — for pay rises across the entire labour market. The industry agreements of 2025 were calculated at 6.4 per cent over 24 months.

Sweden's largest collective agreement, negotiated between the union Kommunal and the employers SKR and Sobona, covers about 540,000 employees in municipalities and regions and runs from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2027. Its central pay rises are 3.4 per cent (SEK 1,000) for 2025 and 3 per cent (SEK 915) for 2026, each including an individual guarantee of SEK 600. The lowest wage in this agreement rises by SEK 2,176 over the course of the agreement period.

Bargaining schedules vary from year to year. Only four small agreements expire during 2026. In 2027, close to 500 of the labour market's 617 agreements, covering 3.4 million employees, are renegotiated.

Average and median salary in Sweden in 2025

The average monthly salary in Sweden across all sectors was SEK 42,900 in 2025. Broken down by sex, the average was SEK 40,600 for women and SEK 45,100 for men. The median monthly salary in Sweden was SEK 38,300 in 2025, with women at SEK 36,800 and men at SEK 39,900. The median represents the middle salary when all salaries are sorted from lowest to highest.

Geographic location, age, and job classification also shape earnings:

SCB's salary search tool, Lönesök, displays average monthly pay before tax by occupation and allows comparisons by education, sex, age, and private or public sector. These figures are broad averages that ignore individual experience or specific workplace responsibilities.

The salary a work permit requires

For applicants seeking a work permit in Sweden, specific statutory thresholds apply. From 1 June 2026, a work permit requires a salary of at least 90 per cent of the median salary in Sweden at the time of the application.

Based on the median of SEK 38,300 published on 16 June 2026, the salary requirement for a work permit is SEK 34,470 a month. In addition to meeting this figure, the salary must also be in line with Swedish collective agreements or common practice in the profession or industry.

For occupations and groups exempt from the standard salary requirement, the salary must be at least 75 per cent of the median, which equates to SEK 28,725 a month for applications from 16 June 2026. People who already hold a permit granted under the previous rules and apply to extend it between 1 June and 1 December 2026 do not need to meet the new salary requirement.

Salary after tax — Skatteverket's calculator

Gross pay does not reflect take-home earnings. Skatteverket's e-service Räkna ut inkomst efter skatt och se skattetabell calculates income after tax and shows your tax table (skattetabell), which your employer uses to deduct tax each month. Which tax table applies depends on where you were registered (folkbokförd) on 1 November of the year before the income year, following your population registration in a Swedish municipality.

The tax tables factor in municipal and state income tax, the general pension contribution, the burial fee, the church fee (if you are a member of the Church of Sweden), and the public service fee. The basic allowance and the earned income tax credit (jobbskatteavdrag) are already deducted in these tables.

Key tax rates and thresholds include:

Holiday, holiday pay and overtime under the law

While salary levels are largely left to collective agreements, basic working conditions are protected by statute. Employees are entitled to at least 25 days of holiday per year, not counting public holidays, and this entitlement is guaranteed by law. Unless an alternative schedule is agreed, annual leave must be arranged so that the employee receives at least four weeks off in a row during June to August.

Holiday compensation is calculated under one of two statutory methods:

Statutory hours and overtime limits are governed by the Working Hours Act (Arbetstidslagen). Under the Act, regular working time may be at most 40 hours a week. General overtime is capped at 48 hours over a four-week period or 50 hours in a calendar month, and at most 200 hours in a calendar year. The law caps overtime hours but does not establish an overtime pay rate; collective agreements often contain the specific rules on overtime remuneration, wages, working hours, and time off.