How Much Do H-1B Visa Holders Get Paid?

H-1B pay isn't one flat number. It's set by your employer's DOL wage filing, and the real figure is public if you know where to look.

You searched "how much do H-1B visa holders get paid" hoping for one clean number, and the honest answer is that there isn't one. H-1B pay isn't set by a nationwide average or directly by immigration law — it's set by your employer's Labor Condition Application (LCA), a wage attestation filed with the Department of Labor that must meet or exceed the prevailing wage for your specific occupation, experience level, and metro area. Two people with the same job title at two different companies, in two different cities, can have legitimately different H-1B wages, and both can be fully compliant.

That's frustrating if you're trying to benchmark an offer, but it's also useful once you understand the mechanism, because the real number for any role is public and searchable. This guide walks through how H-1B pay actually gets set, what the DOL's four wage levels mean, why your wage level now also affects your lottery odds, and how to look up the real figure for a specific company and title instead of guessing from an average.

What actually sets your H-1B wage

Before an employer can file an H-1B petition, they must first file an LCA with the Department of Labor. On that LCA, the employer attests they will pay you the higher of two figures — the "actual wage" the employer pays other workers in the same job with similar experience and qualifications, or the prevailing wage the DOL determines for that occupation, at a specific skill level, in that specific geographic area.

That prevailing wage comes from DOL's Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey data, matched to the standard occupational classification code closest to the actual duties of the role. It is not a single figure per job title. The same title can carry a materially different prevailing wage in a major metro than in a smaller one, and a different wage again depending on which of four skill levels the employer assigns to the role.

This is also why "how much do H-1B workers get paid" resists a single answer even in principle. The wage is a function of occupation code, wage level, and metro area — three variables, not one number. If you want to go deeper on how that number gets calculated, our explainer on how the H-1B prevailing wage is determined covers the mechanics.

The four DOL wage levels, and what they signal

When an employer files the LCA, they select one of four OEWS wage levels for the role. This isn't arbitrary paperwork — it's meant to reflect how much independent judgment, supervision, and complexity the position actually involves, and it sets the wage floor DOL will accept.

Two things are worth knowing about this table. First, the level attached to your LCA is chosen by the employer based on how they describe the job's duties — it's a negotiable input, not a fixed fact about you. Second, it now does double duty: it sets your wage floor, and, as of a 2026 rule change, it also affects your odds of being selected in the H-1B lottery in the first place.

Wage level now also decides your lottery odds

This is the part most candidates researching H-1B pay haven't caught up on yet. Under the wage-weighted selection rule that took effect on 2026-02-27, USCIS no longer runs a flat random draw for cap-subject H-1B registrations. Instead, each registration is entered into the selection pool a number of times based on the wage level attested on the LCA: Level IV gets four entries, Level III gets three, Level II gets two, and Level I gets one.

In practical terms, a higher-paying offer now carries an additional lottery advantage on top of the better paycheck. That makes the wage level conversation with a prospective employer worth having before the LCA is filed, not something you discover after the fact. If your actual duties genuinely support a higher level, raising it with your employer's immigration counsel can improve both your pay and your selection odds in the same conversation. For how the entries and selection pool actually work, see our breakdown of the wage-weighted H-1B lottery.

How to find the real number for a specific role

Because pay varies so much by role, employer, and metro, the most useful thing you can do is stop looking for an average and start looking up the actual filing. Here's the process:

1. Identify the employer's legal filing name. It's often slightly different from the brand name you know — check the offer letter or ask HR which entity will sponsor you.
2. Search public LCA disclosure data by employer and job title. Recent filings show the exact prevailing wage, wage level, and worksite location attested for that role.
3. Compare the wage level to the job description you were given. If your day-to-day responsibilities sound more senior than the wage level implies, that's worth a conversation, not an assumption.
4. Check the worksite metro against your actual office location. Prevailing wage is location-specific, so a filing for the same title in a different city tells you less than you'd think.
5. Cross-reference cost of living for that metro, not just the raw wage number, since the same salary buys very different lives in different cities. Our cost-of-living comparison against H-1B pay is built for exactly this comparison, and if you're weighing an offer in the Pacific Northwest specifically, the Seattle H-1B job market and salary guide breaks down that metro in detail.
6. Bring what you find into any negotiation, rather than negotiating from a guess. A filing you can point to is a stronger anchor than a number you half-remember from a salary aggregator. Our guide to salary negotiation for international candidates walks through how to use that kind of documentation in the conversation itself.

A quick word on the $100,000 fee, since it gets confused with worker pay

If you've seen headlines about a $100,000 H-1B fee, know that it is not a deduction from your paycheck and it is not currently being collected. A 2025 presidential proclamation imposed the fee on certain new cap-subject petitions for workers being brought in from outside the US. A federal court in the District of Massachusetts vacated the proclamation on 2026-06-08, finding it exceeded executive authority, and the First Circuit declined to restore it on 2026-07-24. As of this writing, the fee is not in effect while the appeal is pending. It was never structured as a garnishment on employee wages, and it has no bearing on the prevailing-wage math above.

Common mistakes

• Anchoring on a single "average H-1B salary" headline instead of checking the specific LCA filing for the employer and title you're evaluating. A blended average across every occupation, level, and metro tells you almost nothing about your own offer.
• Assuming a lower wage level means a bad job. Sometimes it genuinely reflects the role's scope, but sometimes it's just how the petition was drafted — worth raising with your employer before the LCA is filed, not after.
• Comparing your offer to a filing from a different metro. Prevailing wage is location-specific, so the same title in a different city is a different number by design.
• Confusing the currently blocked $100,000 fee with your own pay. It was a proposed cost to employers on certain new petitions, not a garnishment on worker wages, and it isn't being collected as of this writing.
• Ignoring the lottery-odds angle of wage level. Since 2026-02-27, wage level affects both your pay and your selection odds, so it's worth treating as one strategic conversation rather than two separate ones.
• Treating your first LCA's wage as permanent. Every transfer, extension, or amendment involves a fresh LCA, which means a fresh opportunity to see, and potentially discuss, the wage level and prevailing wage attached to your role.

Frequently asked questions

How is H-1B pay actually determined? Your employer sets your wage through a Labor Condition Application filed with the Department of Labor, and that wage must meet or exceed the DOL prevailing wage for your specific occupation, experience level (Wage Level I through IV), and metro area. There is no single national H-1B salary since the number is tied to your job, your employer's stated skill level for the role, and where you work. The best way to see the real number for a role is to search the public LCA filing for that employer and job title rather than rely on an average.

What do the DOL wage levels I through IV actually mean? They are the Department of Labor's four-tier scale for how much skill, judgment, and independence a role requires, based on Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey data. Level I generally describes entry-level work performed under close supervision, while Level IV describes fully competent, highly complex work with broad authority. Your employer selects the level when filing the LCA, and it directly sets the wage floor DOL requires them to pay you.

Does my wage level affect my H-1B lottery odds? Yes, under the wage-weighted selection rule that took effect on 2026-02-27. A Level IV offer now receives four entries in the H-1B lottery pool, Level III receives three, Level II receives two, and Level I receives one, so a higher wage level is both a pay signal and a lottery advantage. This makes the wage level on your LCA worth discussing with your employer before it gets filed, not just something to notice afterward.

Where can I check how much a specific company pays H-1B workers? LCA filings are public record, and searching them by employer name and job title shows the exact prevailing wage, wage level, and worksite location the company attested to for a given role. This is far more useful than a single average figure, since pay for the same title can vary widely between employers, cities, and how a role's duties were described on the filing. Cross-checking a specific offer against recent filings from the same employer is one of the more reliable ways to gauge whether a number is reasonable.

Does the H-1B have a legal minimum wage? There is no flat dollar minimum written into the H-1B rules. Instead, the floor is whichever is higher between the DOL prevailing wage for your occupation, wage level, and location, and the actual wage the employer pays similarly situated US workers in that role. Because that floor moves with occupation, wage level, and metro area, comparing your own offer to your specific LCA filing tells you far more than any general benchmark would.

Want a second pair of eyes on a specific offer or wage level before you accept it? F1Jobs can help you think through what the numbers actually mean for your situation.