Minimilön
Minimum wage in Sweden
There isn't one.
Sweden has no statutory minimum wage — and isn't getting one. Pay floors are set by roughly 700 collective agreements instead. Here's what that means for your paycheck, and the numbers that act as minimums in practice.
How wages are actually set
Unions and employer organizations negotiate sector-wide collective agreements (kollektivavtal) that fix minimum pay, working hours, pension, and vacation for each industry. About 88% of employees are covered. The state stays out of it entirely — Sweden even pushed back against the EU minimum wage directive to protect this model. The result: no single number to look up, but real, enforceable floors almost everywhere.
The de facto minimums, 2026
- Hotels & restaurants
- ≈ 25,000–26,000 SEK/mo
- Retail
- ≈ 26,000–27,500 SEK/mo
- Warehousing & transport
- ≈ 26,000–28,000 SEK/mo
- Cleaning & services
- ≈ 24,000–26,000 SEK/mo
- Construction (entry)
- ≈ 28,000+ SEK/mo
Indicative entry-level full-time floors from major collective agreements; exact rates vary by agreement, age and experience steps.
The numbers that behave like minimums
- 33,390 SEK — the work permit floor
- Non-EU citizens need a salary of at least 33,390 SEK/month (90% of the median wage) for a work permit from 1 June 2026 — for immigration purposes, this IS Sweden's minimum wage, and it sits well above most collective floors.
- 38,500 SEK — the median
- Half of Sweden earns more, half less. Use it to calibrate offers — and our salary pages to see your occupation specifically.
- No agreement? Negotiate everything
- A minority of workplaces lack kollektivavtal. There, no floor protects you at all: pay, pension and vacation beyond the legal 25 days are purely contractual. Check for the agreement before signing — its absence is information.
Sweden isn't alone
Six EU countries run without a statutory minimum wage: Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Austria, Italy and Cyprus — all relying on collective bargaining instead. In the Nordics this is a point of pride: wages set by the labor market's own parties, adjusted sector by sector, without political minimum-wage fights.
National median: 38,500 SEK/mo
Common questions
What is the minimum wage in Sweden?
Sweden has no statutory minimum wage. Pay floors come from collective agreements covering ~88% of employees — typically 24,000–28,000 SEK/month for full-time entry-level work in 2026. For non-EU work permits, an effective floor of 33,390 SEK/month applies from June 2026.
What is the minimum salary for a Swedish work permit?
33,390 SEK/month from 1 June 2026 — set at 90% of the median wage. Certain occupations on the official exemption list qualify at 75%, and extensions applied for before 1 December 2026 keep the earlier 29,680 SEK level.
What is a good salary in Sweden?
The national median is about 38,500 SEK/month gross. Around 34,000–35,000 covers a comfortable single life in Stockholm; see our cost-of-living tiers and per-occupation salary pages for your specific picture.
What happens if my employer has no collective agreement?
Then no negotiated floor applies — only your individual contract and base law (25 vacation days, working-time rules). Verify pension and insurance terms explicitly, and consider the agreement's absence when comparing offers.