H-1B Prevailing Wage

What the H-1B prevailing wage is

Every H-1B petition rests on a Labor Condition Application (LCA, Form ETA-9035) in which the employer attests it will pay at least the required wage for your role and location. That floor is built from the prevailing wage — the local going rate DOL derives from your SOC occupation and area — combined with a wage level (I–IV) reflecting the job’s requirements.

How to look up your own prevailing wage

You do not have to take anyone’s word for the number. DOL publishes the whole wage library, and with two pieces of information from your own LCA you can read off all four level figures for your job and city in a couple of minutes.

1. 1. Get your LCA and find two fields

   Your employer must make the certified LCA available to you. You need the SOC/O*NET occupation code and the area of intended employment — the worksite city and county, which DOL resolves to a metropolitan area. While you are there, note the wage level and the wage source your employer attested to.

2. 2. Run the DOL wage search

   Enter the SOC code and the location in the OFLC wage search. It returns the four level wages for that occupation in that area from the current wage vintage — Level I through Level IV, as annual and hourly figures.

3. 3. Compare three numbers, not two

   Line up the level figure DOL gives you, the wage on your LCA, and your actual salary. The LCA wage should be at or above the DOL level figure, and your pay should be at or above the LCA wage. A gap at either step is worth a conversation. Do this in the calculator →

Where the number is allowed to come from

Most people assume the prevailing wage is always the DOL survey figure. It usually is, but it is not the only permitted source — and knowing the alternatives explains why two colleagues with the same title in the same city can sit on different floors.

• The OEWS survey figure. The default, and what the DOL wage search returns: your SOC occupation and area, sorted into four levels.
• A collective bargaining agreement rate. Where a union agreement covers the job, its rate is the prevailing wage and the four-level framework does not apply.
• An independent authoritative survey. An employer may use a private wage survey if it meets DOL’s methodology criteria. This is where genuine disputes arise, because a narrower survey can produce a materially lower figure than OEWS.
• A Davis-Bacon or Service Contract Act wage. For work covered by those statutes, the wage determined under them governs.

The LCA names the source used, which makes it checkable. If the figure on your LCA is well below what the DOL search returns for your SOC and city, the likely explanation is a survey or an agreement rather than an error — but it is a fair question to ask.

What underpayment actually means — including benching

The required wage is an obligation your employer took on by signing the LCA, and it is enforceable by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division rather than by USCIS. Two situations account for most real problems.

Before escalating anything, get the facts straight: pull the certified LCA, check the wage and level on it, check the current DOL figure for the same SOC and area, and confirm whether your worksite still matches the area on the LCA. Then take it to your employer or an attorney with the documents in hand. If a job change is on the table, the wage floor travels with the new LCA — check a transfer before you commit.