Minimum Wage in Sweden 2026: Why There Isn't One and What Applies

Quick answer: Sweden has no statutory minimum wage: no law sets a national pay floor. Minimum pay is set instead in collective agreements (kollektivavtal) between trade unions and employers' organisations, which covered 88% of employees in 2025, and just under half of those agreements specify a minimum pay level. In 2026, examples of agreed minimums include SEK 26,626 a month for an 18-year-old in retail and SEK 35,322 for a skilled construction worker (National Mediation Office data). The exception is non-EU/EEA citizens on a work permit: from 1 June 2026 their salary must be at least 90% of the Swedish median, currently SEK 34,470 per month for applications received from 16 June 2026 (75% in listed occupations; 80% for some extensions until 1 December 2026).

Sweden has no statutory minimum wage

"Sweden does not have a statutory minimum wage," states the Swedish Work Environment Authority in its guidance on the rights of workers posted to Sweden. Wages are instead often regulated by collective agreements.

The National Mediation Office (Medlingsinstitutet), the government agency that tracks these agreements, explains that wage-setting in Sweden is the job of the social partners: trade unions and employers' organisations. There is no law on pay as such; the legislation that bears on pay-setting includes rules against pay that discriminates, for example on grounds of sex, or that disadvantages people on parental leave. Most European countries outside the Nordics do have minimum wage legislation.

Collective agreements reach most of the workforce. According to the Mediation Office's 2025 coverage report:

• 88% of employees aged 18 to 68 were covered by a collective agreement in 2025
• every public-sector employee is covered, so everyone outside an agreement works in the private sector
• in the private sector, coverage was 83%: about 90% of blue-collar and 76% of white-collar workers
• roughly 545,000 employees had no collective agreement

Two rules decide whether an agreement protects you, per the Mediation Office's introduction to the Swedish model. If your employer is bound by a collective agreement, its terms apply to every employee doing work it covers, whether or not they belong to a union. And there is no legal mechanism for extending an agreement to employers that are not bound by one.

Agreed minimum wages in 2026: examples by sector

Many collective agreements do not name a pay level for new hires at all; pay is negotiated individually when you are hired. Just under half of the 620 collective agreements do specify minimum pay levels, according to the Mediation Office's November 2025 selection of agreed minimum wages. Those minimums often depend on age, length of employment, training or job role.

Selected 2026 levels from that dataset:

The Mediation Office describes its list as a selection that is far from complete, and says it is not enough on its own to apply the correct level in a given agreement area: the wording of the agreement itself decides.

Graduate jobs work differently. A 2020 Mediation Office report on minimum wages found that agreements signed by Saco unions, which organise university graduates, usually lack a specified minimum; those unions publish recommended starting salaries instead. The managers' union Ledarna had no agreements with a specified minimum either. For these roles, the agreement governs how pay is set rather than how low it can go.

If your employer has no collective agreement

Where a workplace has no collective agreement, or its agreement names no minimum, "there is no minimum wage for the employer to consider," according to the 2020 Mediation Office report. Pay and the other conditions an agreement would normally cover are agreed between you and the employer, as the Swedish model introduction puts it.

This is most common in small firms. In 2025, only 44% of employees in companies with fewer than ten staff were covered, and about half of the roughly 545,000 uncovered employees worked in such companies (2025 coverage report).

An employer usually becomes bound by joining an employers' organisation. One that is not a member can sign a substitute agreement directly with the relevant union, which binds it in the same way (2025 coverage report). Ask which agreement applies before you sign; our guide to employment contracts in Sweden covers what else to check in the contract.

Work-permit holders: the salary requirement is a legal floor

If you are a citizen of a country outside the EU/EEA, you will in most cases need a permit to work in Sweden (Migrationsverket). That permit comes with a salary threshold that works as a minimum wage for you.

From 1 June 2026, the salary must be at least 90% of the median salary in Sweden. Based on the current median, that is SEK 34,470 per month (Migrationsverket: salary requirements). Statistics Sweden (SCB) publishes the median each June; the current figure, for 2025 and updated on 16 June 2026, is SEK 38,300 (SCB). The median in force when you applied is the one that counts. For applications received between 17 June 2025 and 15 June 2026, the median was SEK 37,100 and the 90% threshold is SEK 33,390 (Migrationsverket). A first-time application from that period that is decided on or after 1 June 2026 is measured against SEK 33,390, not SEK 34,470.

How the rule applies, per Migrationsverket:

• it covers first-time applicants who receive a decision on or after 1 June 2026, including those who applied before that date
• it also covers extensions where the current permit was decided after 1 June 2026
• your pay must still be on par with Swedish collective agreements or common practice in your profession, so it may need to be higher than the 90% figure
• you cannot combine two or more jobs to meet the requirements

Thresholds for applications received from 16 June 2026 (sources: salary requirement, maintenance requirement):

Exemptions. Occupations on the government's list in the Aliens Ordinance need at least 75% of the median. The list includes IT support technicians, systems administrators, assistant nurses, childcare assistants, welders, forestry workers and butchers. The same lower level applies to people moving from a student or researcher permit to their first work permit, people with temporary protection, foreign-trained doctors, dentists and nurses obtaining Swedish certification, and employees of tech or life science start-ups under five years old with fewer than 100 employees (Migrationsverket). When you extend, check that your occupation is still on the list.

Transitional rule for extensions. If your current permit was granted before 1 June 2026 and you apply to extend it between 1 June and 1 December 2026, the older maintenance requirement applies instead: 80% of the median, currently SEK 30,640. From 2 December 2026, extensions must meet the 90% requirement (Migrationsverket).

Seasonal work. From 1 June 2026, seasonal workers must be paid at least the minimum salary for full-time work under Swedish collective agreements, or what is customary in the profession, even when working part-time (Migrationsverket news, 1 June 2026).

The gap matters. Several agreed minimums in the sector table sit well below SEK 34,470. A retail job at the age-18 agreement minimum of SEK 26,626 meets the agreement, but does not reach the standard permit threshold. For the rest of the June 2026 changes, see Sweden's 2026 work permit rules.

The EU minimum wage directive does not change this

The EU directive on adequate minimum wages, (EU) 2022/2041, does not require Sweden to introduce a statutory minimum wage, according to the National Mediation Office. What it does require is that member states report data on minimum wage protection every two years. The Mediation Office handles Sweden's reporting and submitted the first report at the end of September 2025.

How to find the minimum that applies to you

1. Ask your employer whether it is bound by a collective agreement, and which one.
2. Find the minimum for your age, experience and role in that agreement. The Swedish Work Environment Authority directs workers to employers' or workers' organisations for the wages in their sector.
3. If you need a work permit and apply from 16 June 2026, your floor is the higher of the agreement level and SEK 34,470, or SEK 28,725 in an exempt occupation (Migrationsverket).
4. Compare the offer with what the job typically pays. Agreement minimums are floors, not market rates; our guide to what to expect from a Swedish salary covers pay by sector.