Welcome to the June 2026 edition of the Global Employment Tax and Compliance Newsletter.
June closes the first half of the year, which makes this edition a useful point to pause and look beyond single-country updates.
This edition brings together the June updates that matter for international employers, including EU pay transparency, work permit salary rules, employment permit access, statutory wage changes, social security treatment and payroll reporting developments.
We also include Acumen International’s latest articles, including the Global Employment Compliance Checklist, our 2026 employment trends overview, and a practical guide to global mobility tax risk.
European Union: Pay Transparency Deadline Reached
The EU Pay Transparency Directive reached its national implementation deadline on 7 June 2026.
Member States must now introduce national rules covering salary information before employment, restrictions on salary history questions, employee access to pay information, gender pay gap reporting, joint pay assessments and remedies for unequal pay.
The change will show up first in recruitment and pay communication. Candidates will have stronger access to salary information before they accept a role. Employees will have clearer rights to request information on average pay levels for colleagues doing equal work or work of equal value. Larger employers will also face formal reporting duties where gender pay gaps meet the Directive’s thresholds.
For companies with EU workforces, pay decisions will become more visible to candidates, employees and regulators. Salary ranges, role levels and pay differences will need to be handled with more consistency once national rules are in place.
United Kingdom: Visa Fee Support Opens for Scale-Ups
The UK opened the Visa Fees Reimbursement Scheme for Scale Ups on 9 June 2026.
The scheme is aimed at UK-based scale-ups in clean energy, life sciences, and digital and technology sectors. Eligible companies can claim reimbursement for visa application fees linked to specialist international hires and their dependants.
Funding is capped at £25,000 per business per year, with up to £5,000 available for each international hire and their dependants. The scheme applies to eligible visa fees incurred from 9 June 2026 and covers hires under the Skilled Worker, Global Talent and Scale Up visa categories.
This is not a general immigration rule change. It is a targeted cost-support measure for high-growth UK employers with a sponsor licence, where international hiring is part of the talent strategy. The value is in reducing the upfront visa cost attached to specialist hires in priority sectors.
UK–India: Social Security Agreement Set for July Start
The UK government has confirmed that the UK–India Double Contributions Convention will come into force alongside the wider trade agreement on 15 July 2026.
The agreement deals with social security contributions for temporary assignments between the UK and India. A detached worker sent from one country to the other may remain in the home country’s social security system for up to 60 months, instead of paying contributions in both countries at the same time.
This matters for cross-border assignments, not ordinary local hiring. The relief applies where the employee remains employed by the home-country employer and is temporarily sent to work in the other country. A Certificate of Coverage will be needed to show which country’s social security system continues to apply.
For employers moving staff between the UK and India, the agreement changes assignment cost planning. Social security treatment, payroll setup and assignment documentation will need to line up before the employee moves.
Sweden: Work Permit Salary Rules Now Apply
Sweden’s new work permit salary rules came into force on 1 June 2026.
For most non-EU/EEA work permit applicants, the salary must now reach at least 90% of Sweden’s median salary at the time of application. The salary must also meet collective agreement levels or normal practice for the role, so the national threshold does not replace the usual role-specific pay check.
The change matters most where offers were prepared under the previous salary floor or where applications were already in progress. The Swedish Migration Agency can apply the new requirement to first-time applications decided from 1 June, even if the application was submitted earlier.
Some occupations and applicant groups are exempt from the 90% threshold and may instead fall under a 75% median-salary requirement. Extensions submitted between 1 June and 1 December 2026 are also treated differently under transitional rules.
South Africa: Foreign Worker Employment Bill Moves Forward
South Africa’s Employment Services Amendment Bill was published in June 2026, setting out proposed changes to how foreign nationals may be employed in the country.
The Bill is not yet law, but it is relevant for employers because it would create a more formal framework for foreign-national employment. It includes proposed rules on when employers may employ foreign nationals, what checks must happen before employment, and how sector or occupation-based limits could be introduced.
The important point is enforcement. The Bill links foreign-worker employment more closely with employer responsibility, including verification of the worker’s right to work and compliance with labour market rules.
This should be treated as a watch item, not a live obligation. If passed, it could affect employers hiring or retaining foreign nationals in South Africa, especially in sectors where future limits or additional checks are introduced.
Malaysia: Employment Pass Salary Thresholds Increase
Malaysia’s revised Employment Pass salary policy took effect on 1 June 2026.
The new monthly thresholds are:
- Category I: RM20,000 and above, up from RM10,000 and above
- Category II: RM10,000 to RM19,999, up from RM5,000 to RM9,999
- Category III: RM5,000 to RM9,999, up from RM3,000 to RM4,999
The biggest shift is Category I, where the minimum salary has doubled. Roles that previously qualified under a lower Employment Pass category may now need a higher salary, a different permit assessment, or a revised hiring plan before submission.
The new thresholds also apply to renewals submitted from 1 June, so this is not only a new-hire issue. Existing Employment Pass holders whose salary no longer matches the relevant category may need review before renewal.
Ireland: Employment Permit Lists Expand for Shortage Roles
Ireland updated its employment permit occupation lists in late May, with the first valid General Employment Permit applications for newly eligible roles opening from 10 June 2026 where the Labour Market Needs Test timing allows.
The changes add new roles to the Critical Skills Occupations List, remove several roles from the Ineligible List, and renew or create quotas for General Employment Permit categories. The update is aimed at labour shortages in areas such as construction, healthcare, transport, agri-food and specialist technical roles.
The practical effect is a wider permit window for some roles, but not a free pass. Employers still need to match the role to the correct occupation category, salary level, quota position and Labour Market Needs Test requirement before treating the hire as sponsorable.
France: SMIC Increases from 1 June
France increased the SMIC (Salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance), the statutory minimum wage, from 1 June 2026.
The new gross rates are:
- Hourly SMIC: €12.31
- Monthly SMIC: €1,867.02 for a full-time employee on 35 hours per week
For international employers, the SMIC matters even where employees earn above the minimum wage. It is a payroll reference point in France, and it can affect salary checks, collective agreement comparisons, allowances, low-wage roles, apprenticeships and some employment-linked calculations.
The key point is timing. France applied this increase mid-year, so any employment cost estimate, payroll setup or salary review prepared before June may now be using an outdated wage floor.
Australia: Minimum Wage and Award Rates Set for July Increase
Australia’s Fair Work Commission issued its Annual Wage Review decision on 2 June 2026.
From 1 July 2026, the National Minimum Wage will increase to AUD 1,004.90 per week, or AUD 26.44 per hour. Minimum wages under modern awards will also increase by 4.75%.
This matters beyond minimum-wage roles. Modern awards sit underneath many employment arrangements in Australia, setting minimum rates, classifications, allowances and penalty rates across sectors. A salary that looked safely above the minimum before the decision may need to be checked again against the applicable award and classification.
For employers with Australia-based staff, the July payroll cycle is the key point. The new rates will affect base pay checks, award-covered roles, annualised salary arrangements and any employment cost forecasts prepared before the June decision.
Global Employment Compliance Checklist: 100 Questions
Most companies expanding internationally find their blind spots after the fact — through a tax audit, a misclassification claim, or a payroll penalty.
This article turns Acumen’s 25+ years of cross-border hiring experience into a 100-question diagnostic covering employment law, worker classification, payroll, immigration, permanent establishment risk, and more.
The questions are intentionally left unanswered. Use them to find where your expansion strategy is exposed before it costs you.
10 Global Employment Trends 2026
The global workforce agenda has moved firmly past the “remote vs. hybrid” debate.
Today, employers face a more complex set of operational challenges: integrating AI into management systems, mitigating geopolitical risks affecting talent mobility, countering sophisticated remote hiring fraud, and navigating increasingly fragmented compliance laws across jurisdictions.
Here are the ten defining trends shaping how international teams are hired, managed, and kept compliant, and what leadership teams must address before these decisions become difficult to reverse.
Global Mobility Tax: Mitigating Corporate Risks
“Global Mobility Tax” is not a single tax. It is a catch-all for the corporate, payroll, and social security liabilities that activate the moment an employee crosses a border.
This article breaks down where the real exposure sits — permanent establishment risk, shadow payroll, double taxation gaps, trailing equity, and how different deployment models shift the risk profile.
A practical read for anyone managing cross-border teams or planning international assignments.
Moving into the Second Half of 2026
Thank you for reading the June 2026 edition of the Global Employment Tax and Compliance Newsletter.
We will continue to follow the employment tax, labour law, payroll, social security and immigration updates that affect international employers, with a focus on what needs attention before it becomes a cost, timing or compliance problem.
Until next month.