Minimum Salary Level Increased

The situation

Effective January 1, 2019, the minimum monthly salary for foreign workers in Malta will increase to EUR 757.64, up 1.3 percent from last year.

A closer look

• Existing employees. Employers of foreign nationals under a Single Permit will need to increase the foreign national’s minimum salary by January 1, 2019 to comply with the new rule. Immigration applications that do not meet the minimum salary by January 1 will be rejected.
   
• Initial and renewal applications. Employers of foreign nationals seeking to obtain or renew a Single Permit on or after January 1, 2019 must increase the foreign national’s minimum salary to comply with the new rule. Immigration applications that do not meet the minimum salary by January 1 will be rejected.
   
• Pending applications. Employers of foreign nationals with pending work permit applications as of January 1, 2019 must increase the foreign national’s minimum salary to comply with the new rule. Immigration applications that do not meet the minimum salary will be rejected.
   

Reminders on other requirements

• Increases, bonuses and allowances. As before, the following additional mandatory amounts must be added to the salary: cost of living increase of EUR 1.75 per day; statutory bonus to be paid end of June and between December 15-23 of EUR 135.10; and weekly allowance to be paid end of March and September of EUR 121.16.
   
• Salary rate per sector. As before, specific sectors may have a different threshold. 
   
• Currency. As before, employers are required to guarantee the salary in EUR regardless of payroll location and/or exchange rate fluctuations.

Background

Malta increased the minimum salary threshold for foreign workers by one percent for 2017 and 10 percent for 2018. An increase in the 1-10 percent range per year is a typical threshold increase in Europe.

Looking ahead

Malta is the sixth country after Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Kazakhstan and Slovakia to announce its new thresholds for 2019. Fragomen expects most European countries to announce their new thresholds in the coming weeks, with Belarus, Croatia and the Netherlands typically being among the later countries to publish new amounts. Fragomen will report relevant developments on other countries’ increases as they occur.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].