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Local Sweden
22-05-2025
- Business
- Local Sweden
Work permits and alcohol: What changes in Sweden in June 2025
Changes to work permit salaries, a tax rebate, two days off and summer holidays. Here's what's on the agenda for Sweden in June this year. Advertisement June 1st: Will the work permit salary threshold be raised? On June 1st, the salary threshold for work permits was originally set to be raised to 100 percent of the median salary (it's currently set at 80 percent of the median salary) if the government were to stick to the schedule proposed by its inquiry. That's unlikely to happen. Sweden's Migration Minister Johan Forssell told The Local in May that 'no formal decision' has been made on where the final salary threshold will actually end up. The government in February asked the Migration Agency to present a list of which professions should be exempt from the salary threshold by August 1st, suggesting that the original plan to roll out the new threshold on June 1st will be postponed until at least the autumn. This isn't the first time that we've seen an indication that the government hasn't fully committed to raising the threshold to 100 percent of the median salary. In January, Employment Minister Mats Persson said that his party, the Liberals, would even be willing to lower the threshold. That said, the work permit salary threshold will likely be raised anyway in June, but more on that below. Advertisement June 1st: Alcohol producers allowed to sell take-away drinks direct to customers From June 1st, some small-scale alcohol producers, such as vineyards and microbreweries, will be allowed to sell their products on-site for consumption elsewhere, in what is known in Swedish as gårdsförsäljning, literally "farm sale". It will only apply to producers who make a maximum of 75,000 litres of spirits, 400,000 litres of fermented drinks up to 10 percent ABV or up to 200,000 litres of fermented drinks over 10 percent ABV. The proposal includes all types of alcohol and will not require that drinks' ingredients are produced on-site, with the exception of grapes for wine. There will be limits on the amount of alcohol customers can buy, and producers will only be allowed to sell their products to visitors who have paid for a guided tour, lecture or similar. June 3rd-5th: Tax rebate Anyone who submitted their tax return by the later May 2nd deadline should receive their rebate between June 3rd and June 5th. If you on the other hand end up having to pay extra tax, you'll also find out on this date, with payment due around three months later. If you asked for an extension to your tax declaration, this has to be handed in by June 2nd. Staying on the topic of money, the Riksbank will announce its fourth interest rate update of the year on June 18th. It is widely expected that the key interest rate will remain the same at 2.25 percent. June 6th: National Day Another important date in the Swedish calendar in June is Sweden's National Day on June 6th. It has been a public holiday since 2005, replacing Whit Monday, but was first celebrated in 1916 in honour of the election of King Gustav Vasa on June 6th, 1523. Gustav Vasa's election also marks the end of the Danish-ruled Kalmar Union, so is arguably a marking of Swedish independence, although it occurred so long ago that few Swedes associate National Day with this aspect of Swedish history. This year, June 6th is a Friday, meaning that Swedish workers will be able to enjoy a long weekend. READ ALSO: Sweden's public holidays in 2025 You may also be able to buy a nationaldagsbakelse or National Day pastry in many bakeries on June 6th, a small almond cake topped with strawberries and a Swedish flag. Mid-June: School holidays and graduation Summer holidays start in most of Sweden's schools around the middle of the month. You can also expect Sweden to be a bit louder in June, especially if you live in an urban area near a gymnasium school. Students finishing upper high school (gymnasium) will springa ut starting in early June, a tradition where newly-graduated students run out of school after getting their final exam results to cheers from friends and family, after which they will drive around in a car or on the back of a van with friends and party for the rest of the evening. Advertisement End of June: New median salary figures released Statistics Sweden will release new salary figures at the end of June. In past years, they've been released between June 18th and 22nd. This may not sound like a big deal, but these are the figures which affect the salary threshold for work permit applicants in Sweden. The most recent figures from June last year put the median salary at 35,600 kronor, meaning that work permit holders applying for a new permit or an extension need to earn 80 percent of this – 28,480 kronor – to qualify for a permit. This was a hike of over a thousand kronor compared with the year before. Once the new median salary figure has been released, the work permit salary requirement will (almost certainly) rise. This will only apply to applications submitted from that date – the threshold is determined by the most recent salary figures at the time of application, not at the time a decision is made. If the work permit threshold is raised to 100 percent of the median salary on June 1st (which as we explained above looks unlikely), then that figure will be higher. Advertisement June 20th: Midsummer's Eve Rounding off June, we have Midsummer's Eve, which falls on June 20th this year. The majority of workers – at least those who work normal working hours throughout the week – will have the day off on Midsummer's Eve, despite the fact that it is not officially a röd dag or public holiday. The reason it's celebrated on a Friday rather than on the actual summer solstice, which this year is on June 21st, is due to a 1953 reform to make it fit in better with the working week – and presumably to give workers the Saturday off to recover from the festivities. It is, however, listed as a holiday day equivalent to a Sunday in Sweden's Annual Leave Act, so if you don't usually work on Sundays you should have the day off. If you do have to work on Midsummer's Eve, you may be offered OB-tillägg (pay for working inconvenient hours), overtime pay, or a day off in lieu at a later date. READ ALSO: Why is Midsummer's Eve celebrated in Sweden? Advertisement Summer holidays and other events in June June also marks the start of Sweden's famously long summer holidays. Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg comes highly recommended if you're into rock music. Put June 4th-7th in your calendar. Järvaveckan (Järva Week) has grown to one of Sweden's biggest political events in the last few years, with representatives from every major party attending. Held at the Spånga sports field in northern Stockholm, it is still young and vibrant enough to feel less elite than its older cousin, the Almedalsveckan (Almedalen Week) festival. This year it will take place from June 11th-14th. Speaking of Almedalen Week, it will be held on the island of Gotland between June 23rd and 27th. Interest in the event has been declining in recent years, but some 40,000 people still attend every year, 95 percent of them coming from outside Gotland, where hotel prices shoot up every summer.
Local Sweden
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Government moves forward with plans to map immigrants' Swedish skills
The government has given Statistics Sweden two separate tasks, or uppdrag. The first is to put together a preliminary study into how listening and speaking skills among immigrants could be measured, while the second will also examine the reading skills of people in Sweden who were born elsewhere. The tasks are part of a plan announced in December 2024, where the government tasked Statistics Sweden with proposing an 'Integration Barometer' in the form of a regular study aimed at measuring the differences between immigrants and people born in Sweden on a number of "factors which are otherwise difficult to measure with register data'. 'Having good knowledge of the Swedish language is a basic foundation for being able to get established on the labour market,' labour and integration minister Mats Persson said in a statement. 'Now, the government is taking another step forward when it comes to basing integration policy on fact. These tasks we've given Statistics Sweden will give us better skills when it comes to monitoring integration,' he said. According to government documents, Statistics Sweden has been tasked to collaborate with the Swedish National Agency for Education and 'other relevant authorities, researchers and organisations' on the preliminary study into mapping listening and speaking skills. 'Within the parameters of the assigned tasks, Statistics Sweden shall study and analyse methods which are used for testing listening and speaking skills in similar or related situations,' government documents read. 'Statistics Sweden shall propose a method of monitoring knowledge of Swedish to a level necessary for successful participation in Swedish societal and professional life.' By December 1st, 2025, Statistics Sweden must submit a final report to the labour market department along with a timeline for the proposal's implementation. "Language skills are essential for successfully joining the labour market and society at large," Sweden Democrat migration spokesperson Ludvig Aspling said. "Unfortunately, we currently know too little about the language skills of foreign-born people. This task we have given Statistics Sweden will allow us to gain a better picture of this." Regarding reading skills, the agency is tasked with not only proposing how these skills could be mapped, but also carrying out regular monitoring of immigrants' reading skills from 2025 to 2028, with a final report to be submitted by 16th November, 2029 at the latest. Both proposals have been assigned a maximum budget of 2 million kronor in 2025, with the latter multi-year test of reading skills expected to cost the state a total of 48 million kronor between 2026 and 2029.
