Nominations must indicate a salary that is at least the TSMIT. For the Employer Sponsored Program, the salary must also be equivalent to the AMSR, to ensure employers aren’t using migrant workers to undercut the wages of Australians.

While this requirement may exclude lower skilled occupations from the program, the Department is able to flexibly consider the following elements of the AMSR, as long as employers provide suitable evidence justifying their claims, including:

• What is considered equivalent work. For example, if a sponsor has a more or less experienced worker than the nominee, doing similar work at a lower or higher pay grade, then they are not an equivalent Australian worker.
• Where there is no equivalent worker or award/agreement, employers must provide evidence of how they determined the AMSR, including at least two of the following: Job Outlook information, advertisements from the last 6 months for equivalent positions in the same location, remuneration surveys completed by a reputable organisation; or written advice from registered unions or employer associations.
• What counts as guaranteed monetary earnings for an actual or theoretical equivalent Australian worker such as guaranteed overtime amounts, if an equivalent Australian worker also has access to those arrangements.
• Allowing the AMSR to include non-monetary benefits, such as accommodation or a car, where the AMSR is more than TSMIT and only if it reasonable to do so.

Currently, it would generally only be considered reasonable to do so where: there are no concerns that non-monetary benefits are being used to artificially inflate the salary for a lower-skilled occupation and the AMSR determination is based on the guaranteed annual earnings of an equivalent Australian worker.

In our view these changes are having the effect of pushing lower skilled workers out of the program as it would actually require employers to pay more than Australian workers.  As paying more than an Australian worker is not permitted many temporary skilled migrants currently sponsored under the 482 program may see their positions cease upon having to renew the 482 visa or when it comes time to apply for a permanent 186.  The alternative strategy for employers, in the governments eyes, is to employ Australian workers in these positions, but as most employers are aware in these industries Australian workers are not available due to severe shortages.

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