EB-1 vs EB-2 vs EB-3 - which employment-based green card category fits you
9 mins read | Jul 14, 2026
There is no single H-1B salary number that applies to every hire. The H-1B minimum salary is a floor your company calculates for each role and location, and getting it wrong can delay a start date or put a petition at risk. This guide explains what that floor actually is, how the U.S. Department of Labor sets the prevailing wage behind it, what changed heading into 2026, and how HR can budget an H-1B hire with confidence.
Wage figures and the status of any pending rule are current as of July 2026. The Department of Labor and USCIS update these periodically, so check the linked official pages for the latest numbers before you commit to an offer.
What the H-1B minimum salary actually means (the required wage)
The H-1B minimum salary is the "required wage," and it is the higher of two numbers: your company's actual wage for the role, or the prevailing wage for that occupation in that location. Whichever is greater becomes the floor you must pay the H-1B worker. This rule comes from the Immigration and Nationality Act and is enforced through the Labor Condition Application, so it applies to every H-1B petition regardless of the employer's size or industry. It's a core piece of employer sponsorship for this work visa, and it sits with USCIS petition requirements at the center of any H-1B hire.
The two inputs measure different things, which is why the law takes the higher of them. Your actual wage is what you already pay other employees in the same role at the same worksite with comparable experience, seniority, and qualifications, so it is set by looking at your own team rather than an outside benchmark, and an H-1B hire can't be paid less than the U.S. colleagues sitting next to them at the same level. The prevailing wage is a market benchmark for the occupation and area, set from government wage data, so the hire can't be paid below what the local labor market commands for that job.
The two inputs are easiest to compare side by side:
| Wage input | What it measures | Source | Who it protects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Actual wage | What you pay peers in the same role and seniority at the same worksite | Your own payroll data | U.S. co-workers already in the role |
| Prevailing wage | Market pay for the occupation in that area and wage level | Department of Labor wage data | The local labor market |
The required wage is simply whichever of these two is higher.
For an HR lead pricing a hire, the practical takeaway is simple: pull both numbers early, and budget to the larger one. If your internal pay band for a software engineer in Austin already sits above the government benchmark, your actual wage governs and you're set. If the benchmark comes in higher than your band, the benchmark governs, and you either raise the offer or reconsider the wage level and role definition. Either way, you commit to that floor in writing before the petition is filed.
How the prevailing wage is set for an H-1B role
The prevailing wage for an H-1B role is set by the U.S. Department of Labor, most often from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, which reports pay by occupation and metropolitan area across four wage levels. Level 1 reflects entry-level pay and Level 4 reflects the most experienced, senior end of the occupation, with Levels 2 and 3 in between. The level you select should match the actual duties, required experience, and supervision in the job description, not the salary you'd prefer to pay.
Employers have more than one acceptable way to establish the prevailing wage. The most common route is the Department of Labor's own wage data, published through its Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG), which the employer looks up and applies to the Labor Condition Application. A company can also request a formal Prevailing Wage Determination from the Department of Labor for that specific role and location, or rely on an independent, legitimate wage survey that meets federal methodology standards. Each route has tradeoffs in speed and defensibility, and the right one depends on how unusual the role is and how much certainty you want.
The four-level mechanics matter enough that they deserve their own treatment, and we cover exactly how each level is defined and chosen in our guide to H-1B prevailing wage levels. For budgeting purposes here, the point to hold onto is that the wage level drives the number: the same job title in the same city can carry very different prevailing wages depending on which level the duties support, so the level decision is a compensation decision as much as a compliance one.
Because prevailing wage is location-specific, a distributed team changes the math. If the role is tied to multiple worksites, the prevailing wage is determined for each location, and the highest applicable figure sets the floor. A remote or multi-city hire can therefore cost more than the same role pinned to a single, lower-wage metro area.
Where the wage floor gets locked in: the LCA
The wage obligation becomes binding on the Labor Condition Application, or LCA, which is Form ETA-9035E filed with the Department of Labor through its FLAG system before the H-1B petition goes to USCIS. On the LCA, your company attests under penalty of law that it will pay the H-1B worker at least the required wage, that the hire won't harm the working conditions of similar U.S. employees, and that proper notice was given to your workforce. A certified LCA is then included in the Form I-129 petition sent to USCIS, the nonimmigrant visa petition that seeks work authorization for the foreign national you're sponsoring.
Getting the LCA wage right the first time protects your timeline. The Department of Labor's certification processing time is generally about seven business days when the filing is clean, but an error in the wage level, the worksite, or the occupational code can force a refile and push your start date back by weeks. Since the LCA has to be certified before the I-129 can be filed, a wage mistake here delays everything downstream.
The wage floor also isn't a one-time hurdle. Your company remains obligated to pay at or above the required wage for the entire period of authorized employment, including through nonproductive time such as benching, and the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division audits and enforces these attestations. That ongoing obligation is why HR benefits from seeing wage commitments across every active case in one place rather than rediscovering them petition by petition.
Budget an H-1B hire before you make the offerSee a personalized price and timeline estimate based on the visa type and worksite.
H-1B salary increase rule 2026: what changed and what is still proposed
Two 2026 wage-related developments matter for H-1B budgeting, and it helps to keep them separate because only one is a proposal and neither replaces the required-wage rule above. The first is a final H-1B selection rule; the second is a proposed change to how prevailing wages are calculated. As of July 2026, the required wage is still the higher of your actual wage or the prevailing wage, exactly as described above.
The first change is the Department of Homeland Security's weighted selection rule, finalized and effective February 27, 2026, which uses wage levels to weight the H-1B cap lottery. Under this rule, a registration tied to a Level 4 wage gets four entries in the selection pool, Level 3 gets three, Level 2 gets two, and Level 1 gets one, so higher-paid roles have better odds of selection. This does not set a minimum salary and does not change what you owe an approved worker. It does mean that offering a higher wage level can improve a beneficiary's chance of being picked, which is a planning input for cap season rather than a new pay floor.
The second change is a Department of Labor proposed rule, published March 27, 2026, that would raise the prevailing wage percentiles across the H-1B, H-1B1, E-3, and PERM programs. Under the proposal, the Level 1 (entry) wage would move from roughly the 17th percentile of the wage survey to the 34th, and the Level 4 wage would sit at the 88th percentile, which would lift the required floor for many roles, especially entry-level ones. This rule is proposed, not final: the public comment period closed in late May 2026, and the Department of Labor has not published a final rule or an effective date. Until a final rule takes effect, the current percentiles still govern your LCA, so you should plan for the possibility of higher floors without applying them yet. You can track the proposal and any final action on the Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification page.
The prudent read for HR is to treat the DOL proposal as a budgeting scenario, not a present obligation. Build a sensitivity check into your headcount planning for entry-level and early-career H-1B roles, since those would feel the largest jump if the rule is finalized, and keep an eye on the Department of Labor's official announcements for the final rule.
Budgeting an H-1B hire around the wage floor
To budget an H-1B hire, start with the wage floor and layer the government and legal costs on top, then confirm the floor holds across every worksite. The salary itself is usually the largest line, and because it's the higher of your actual or prevailing wage, the safest approach is to price the role at the higher number before you extend an offer. Getting this right at offer stage avoids the far more expensive problem of discovering a shortfall after the LCA is certified.
Beyond salary, the H-1B carries government filing fees that sit outside the wage floor, and the totals vary with employer type and case specifics. We break these down in detail in our guides to H-1B sponsorship cost for employers and the overall H-1B visa cost, and they cover the registration fee, the I-129 filing fees, and optional premium processing. Reading the wage floor and these fees together gives you the real all-in number for a hire.
For a distributed or growing team, the budgeting question is rarely one hire in isolation. Companies that sponsor several H-1B workers need to see wage commitments, worksites, and renewal dates across the whole portfolio, because a wage floor set today becomes an ongoing payroll obligation you'll carry for years. That portfolio view is where the process becomes a talent-planning exercise rather than a series of one-off filings, and it's the reason HR teams increasingly want visibility across every case rather than status updates one email at a time.
If you're early in the process, our employer guides to visa sponsorship and how to sponsor a foreign worker walk through the full sequence, and the H-1B cap season HR calendar maps the timing from candidate identification to an October start. For the complete requirements behind the visa itself, see the H-1B visa guide.
Tukki is a U.S. immigration provider focused on employment-based visas like the H-1B. For HR teams sponsoring one hire or a portfolio, Tukki pairs dedicated attorney support with a platform that shows wage commitments, worksites, and case status across every petition in one place. If you're pricing an H-1B hire and want a clear view of the wage floor and the full cost, talk with our team.