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The H-1B prevailing wage is the salary floor your employer must pay you to keep your H-1B petition compliant with U.S. Department of Labor rules. If your offered wage falls below it, the Labor Condition Application gets denied, the H-1B petition fails, and your start date slips. This guide explains how the DOL sets each of the four H-1B wage levels, how to look up your own number and what to do if you suspect your employer filed at the wrong level.
What is the H-1B prevailing wage?
The H-1B prevailing wage is the minimum salary the Department of Labor requires your employer to pay you for a specialty occupation job in your specific area of employment. It's set by occupation and location, not by company or person. The whole point is to make sure hiring an H-1B worker doesn't undercut U.S. wages for the same role in the same city.
Every H-1B petition starts with a Labor Condition Application (LCA), and the LCA only gets certified if the offered wage is at or above the prevailing wage for that occupation and that work location. If you're earning less than the H-1B prevailing wage required for your job and your city, your H-1B petition cannot legally be filed in the first place.
Why the prevailing wage matters for an H-1B
The prevailing wage protects two people at once: you and the U.S. labor market. For you, it sets the salary floor your sponsor must hit. For the market, it stops employers from using H-1B sponsorship as a way to pay foreign professionals less than U.S. workers in the same role. That's why DOL ties the wage to a specific occupation code and a specific metropolitan area, not to a national average.
The downstream effects are real. An LCA filed at too low a wage level can trigger a Request for Evidence on the H-1B petition, get the LCA suspended, or in the worst case lead to a DOL audit of the employer's H-1B program. For the beneficiary, the most common consequence is a delay of several months to your H-1B start date while the employer refiles at the correct level.
Who sets the H-1B prevailing wage
The H-1B prevailing wage is set by the DOL's Office of Foreign Labor Certification, which publishes wage data through the Foreign Labor Certification Data Center (FLC Data Center) and the FLAG system. The underlying numbers come from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a national wage survey run by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employers can choose the OES wage as their prevailing wage source, or in some cases use an independent wage survey, but the OES route is by far the most common and the simplest to verify. You can look up the current OES wage for any occupation and location on the DOL FLAG wage search tool.
How does DOL decide the H-1B wage level?
DOL slots every H-1B job into one of four wage levels based on the experience, education, supervision, and judgment the role actually requires. The four levels correspond to fixed percentiles in the OES wage data for the occupation and location: the 17th, 34th, 50th, and 67th percentile. Higher percentile means a higher salary floor.
OES survey data and the FLC Data Center
The OES survey collects wage data twice a year from employers across the country, broken out by Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code and by metropolitan statistical area. The FLC Data Center publishes those wages each July as the official H-1B prevailing wage source for the next year. So when you look up a "software developers" wage in San Francisco at Level 2, you're seeing the 34th percentile of all software developer salaries reported in San Francisco's OES survey for the current wage year.
The four wage level percentiles
DOL's mapping from level to percentile is fixed and applies to every SOC code:
| Wage level | Skill profile | OES percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Entry, working under close supervision | 17th |
| Level 2 | Qualified, exercises independent judgment | 34th |
| Level 3 | Experienced, advanced knowledge | 50th |
| Level 4 | Fully competent, expert-level | 67th |
Because the percentiles are fixed, the only thing that changes the dollar amount is your SOC code and your metro area. A Level 2 software developer in Austin is a different number from a Level 2 software developer in New York, but both sit at the 34th percentile of their local OES data.
H-1B prevailing wage levels 1 to 4 explained
The four H-1B wage levels track the seniority of the job, not the seniority of the person. DOL looks at the job description in the LCA, the duties listed, the supervision level, and the education and experience the role requires, and then assigns the level. A senior engineer hired into a job that's described as entry-level still gets a Level 1 wage, which is exactly why USCIS often pushes back on Level 1 filings: the duties don't match a real specialty occupation.
Wage Level 1: entry-level positions
Wage Level 1 is for entry-level roles that require basic knowledge, work under close supervision, and have limited independent judgment. A typical Level 1 candidate has 0 to 2 years of experience in the field.
Example role and salary floor
A junior software developer in Austin, Texas, with one year of experience reporting to a senior engineer would normally file at Level 1. Plugging that into the FLC Data Center against SOC 15-1252 (Software Developers) for the Austin metro area pulls a Level 1 wage near the 17th percentile of that local market. Level 1 is also the level USCIS challenges most often, because a job that genuinely qualifies as a specialty occupation rarely involves only supervised, entry-level tasks.
Wage Level 2: qualified positions
Wage Level 2 covers jobs requiring qualified workers who exercise independent judgment on routine tasks but still operate under general supervision. Most H-1B petitions land at Level 2: candidates typically have 2 to 4 years of experience and are doing standard work for the role without leading projects.
Example role and salary floor
A data scientist in Seattle with three years of experience, working on standard modeling projects and reporting to a tech lead, fits Level 2. The FLC Data Center wage for SOC 15-2051 (Data Scientists) in the Seattle metro sits at the 34th percentile of local OES data for that occupation. Level 2 is the most common filing level for mid-career H-1B beneficiaries.
Wage Level 3: experienced positions
Wage Level 3 is for experienced workers with a deeper command of the field. Candidates typically have 4 to 7 years of experience, lead pieces of work without daily supervision, and may direct junior staff.
Example role and salary floor
A senior product manager in San Francisco with five years of experience, owning a product line and managing two associate PMs, normally fits Level 3. Pulling SOC 11-2021 (Marketing Managers, often used for product managers depending on duties) for the San Francisco metro at Level 3 gives the 50th percentile of the local market, which is the median local wage for that role.
Wage Level 4: fully competent positions
Wage Level 4 is for fully competent professionals with expert-level command of the field, often setting strategy, leading large teams, or operating as the senior technical authority. Candidates usually have 7 or more years of experience and 10 to 15 years for many specialized roles.
Example role and salary floor
A staff machine learning engineer in New York with twelve years of experience, driving research direction across a team of fifteen, sits comfortably at Level 4. SOC 15-2051 at Level 4 in the New York metro returns the 67th percentile of OES data: well above median, reflecting the senior, judgment-heavy nature of the role.
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How do you find your H-1B prevailing wage?
You can look up the prevailing wage for your role in three steps using public DOL tools. The numbers are free to access, and you don't need to wait for your employer or attorney to share them. Pulling your own wage gives you a quick sanity check on whether your offer is at, above, or below the H-1B salary floor.
Step 1: identify your SOC code
The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code maps your job to a specific category in DOL's wage data. Software developers fall under 15-1252, data scientists under 15-2051, financial analysts under 13-2051, and so on. You can search SOC codes by job title at the Bureau of Labor Statistics SOC system, but the most reliable check is to look at the SOC code listed on your LCA (Form ETA-9035) once your employer has filed it.
If your title doesn't map cleanly to one SOC code, the employer's attorney usually picks the closest match based on the actual duties of the role. Picking the wrong SOC code is one of the most common reasons LCAs get challenged later.
Step 2: confirm your area of intended employment
The prevailing wage depends on your "area of intended employment," which usually means the metropolitan statistical area where you'll physically work. Remote roles can complicate this because DOL ties the wage to a worksite, not to a company headquarters. If your role is remote, the LCA must list every metro area where you may work, and the highest applicable prevailing wage among those locations is the one that controls.
Step 3: look up the wage in FLAG / FLC Data Center
Once you have your SOC code and metro area, head to the DOL FLAG portal or the FLC Data Center wage search and enter both. The tool returns four numbers: Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 wages for that occupation in that location. Compare your offered salary against those four numbers and you'll know exactly which wage level your offer corresponds to.
What if your employer files at the wrong H-1B wage level?
Filing at the wrong H-1B wage level is more common than people think. Sometimes it's a genuine mistake on the SOC code, sometimes the duties on the LCA don't match the duties of the real job, and sometimes the employer files at Level 1 to keep the salary floor lower. Whatever the cause, the fix has to happen before the H-1B petition is approved, since fixing the wage after the fact usually means refiling the LCA and the petition.
How to verify your LCA
Every LCA filed for an H-1B is public, and you can pull it yourself. The DOL Office of Foreign Labor Certification publishes a searchable LCA database, and your employer must also keep a "public access file" with the certified LCA, the wage rate, and supporting documentation. Ask your HR team or your immigration attorney for a copy of the certified ETA-9035: the SOC code, wage level, prevailing wage, offered wage, and work location are all on the first page.
If your offered wage matches the prevailing wage figure for the listed level, the filing is internally consistent. If your offered wage is lower than the prevailing wage on the LCA, the LCA shouldn't have been certified at all. And if the level on the LCA looks too low for the job you're actually doing, that's the warning sign to flag.
Options if the wage level is too low
If you spot a mismatch, the first step is to raise it with your immigration counsel before the petition goes too far. The standard fixes are:
- Amend the LCA and the H-1B petition with the correct wage level and offered salary.
- File a new LCA at the proper level, then amend the H-1B petition to attach it.
- In the rare case the employer refuses to fix it, the worker can file a complaint with the DOL Wage and Hour Division, which enforces H-1B wage rules.
Amendments usually add 2 to 4 months to the timeline. That's a frustrating delay, but it's much better than working in the U.S. on an H-1B with a defective LCA, which puts your status at risk. For the broader cost picture around amendments and refilings, see our H-1B sponsorship cost guide and the full H-1B visa guide.
How the H-1B prevailing wage ties to your LCA
The prevailing wage is the spine of the LCA. Every other line on Form ETA-9035 (job title, SOC code, work location, offered wage, period of employment) connects back to the wage determination, and the LCA can't be certified without it.
Form ETA-9035 and the public LCA
Form ETA-9035 is the H-1B Labor Condition Application, and it's filed electronically through the FLAG system. Once DOL certifies it, the LCA becomes part of the H-1B petition filed with USCIS on Form I-129. The certified LCA is also public: the employer must post it at the worksite for ten days before filing, and the certified copy goes into the company's public access file. LCAs are valid for up to three years, matching the maximum initial H-1B petition period.
Because the LCA, the I-129 petition, and the offered wage all have to line up, a wrong wage level early in the process creates compounding problems later. Catching it before the LCA is certified is the cheapest fix; catching it after USCIS has approved the petition almost always means refiling.