What is a prevailing wage and why does it matter for my visa case?

The prevailing wage is the average wage paid to similarly employed workers for a specific occupation in the area of intended employment. For H-1B and H-1B1/E-3 LCAs, the employer must attest to paying at or above the prevailing wage for the worksite MSA and SOC. For PERM, the prevailing wage determines whether the U.S. labor market test produced a qualified applicant willing to work at that figure. An offer below the prevailing wage is the most common reason an LCA is later flagged or a PERM is denied.

How does DOL pick which level applies to a given job?

DOL OFLC assigns Level 1-4 based on the position's experience, education, training, supervision, and use of independent judgment per the 2009 OFLC Wage Methodology. Most graduate-degree research roles default to Level 2 or 3; a fresh STEM master's hire is usually Level 1 unless the duties demand independent judgment. Level 4 is reserved for roles with supervision authority and complete responsibility. The standardized Form ETA-9141 worksheet guides the level selection.

Why are the figures here different from the FLAG search?

Two reasons. First, FLAG searches are MSA-level (e.g., San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA) and our v1 widget aggregates to the state level — figures will differ between San Jose Software Developers and Fresno Software Developers within California. Second, FLAG uses the OFLC Online Wage Library which receives a separate annual file from BLS with its own statistical adjustments. Our interpolation from public OEWS percentiles tracks within ~3% on spot checks but is not the legally binding number. Always pull the MSA-specific FLAG figure before filing.

Can the employer pay above the prevailing wage?

Yes, and most do. The prevailing wage is a floor, not a ceiling. Many tech and finance employers pay 20-50% above Level 4 to be competitive in the labor market. The LCA only requires the offered wage to be at or above the level the employer designated — it does not cap upward.

What if my occupation isn't in the dropdown?

v1 covers 23 occupations with high H-1B and PERM filing volume. For occupations not yet in the widget, run the FLAG wage search directly using your SOC code (the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook gives the 6-digit SOC). The same Level 1-4 framework applies to every SOC.

Do I use the H-1B figure or the PERM figure?

They're the same number. DOL uses the same OFLC prevailing wage for H-1B/H-1B1/E-3 LCAs and PERM I-140s. The classification (H-1B specialty occupation vs. PERM EB-2/EB-3 Schedule A) changes which form you file and the experience/education requirements you must meet, but the prevailing wage table is shared.

How often does the data refresh?

BLS releases May OEWS in April of the following year (so May 2024 data was published April 2025; May 2026 lands April 2027). DOL OFLC adopts the new file each July 1. We rebuild this widget after each annual release.

Prevailing Wage Checker (DOL Levels 1-4) for H-1B & PERM

How DOL builds the four wage levels

The Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) publishes a four-level wage table for every Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code in every Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The levels come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, with cuts placed at the 17th, 34th, 50th, and 67th percentiles of the wage distribution per the 2009 OFLC Wage Methodology (revised 2017).

Each level corresponds to an experience and responsibility profile, not a job title:

Level 1 — Entry. ≤ 2 years of experience, basic understanding of duties, performs routine tasks under general supervision. Most fresh master's-degree hires in research or engineering default here unless duties already demand independent judgment.
Level 2 — Qualified. Some experience, limited supervision, moderate use of judgment. The default for the majority of mid-career H-1B specialty occupation roles.
Level 3 — Experienced. Significant experience, sound understanding of the field, can supervise others or work without close oversight.
Level 4 — Fully Competent. Advanced experience, complete understanding of the occupation, full responsibility — typically managers, technical leads, principal engineers, senior counsel.

The widget above shows all four levels side-by-side because most cases require choosing the right level for the position description, not just looking up the SOC. An LCA filed at the wrong level — typically too low — is the most common foreign-labor compliance audit trigger.

State vs. MSA precision

This v1 widget reports state-level figures interpolated from BLS OEWS percentiles. The legally binding figure for an LCA or PERM filing is the MSA-level number from the OFLC FLAG wage-data search — pulled with the worksite's SOC code and ZIP code.

Within a state, MSA differences can be substantial. In California, May 2024 OEWS Software Developer (SOC 15-1252) Level 1 ranges from roughly $111K (Bakersfield-Delano) to $135K+ (San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara). The widget's California figure of approximately $118K is the state mean, useful for scoping but not for filing. Always pull the MSA-specific number before sign-off.

For research and academic positions on H-1B at universities, OFLC publishes a separate academic wage survey via the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). That survey is not in this widget — for academic Level determinations, request the institution's HR pull the CUPA figure with the FLAG ETA-9141 process.

When the offer is above prevailing wage

The prevailing wage is a floor. Major-tech and finance H-1B offers routinely exceed Level 4 by 20-50% — the LCA simply has to attest the offered wage meets or beats the level the employer designated. Paying above does not change processing time, RFE risk, or PERM strategy.

Where it does matter: PERM labor certification asks whether a U.S. worker would have accepted the role at the prevailing wage. If the employer's actual job posting and recruitment was conducted at the higher offered wage, DOL may question whether the recruitment effort would have produced a qualified U.S. worker at the prevailing wage. This is why most PERM-stage employers run recruitment at the prevailing wage, not the offered wage.

What the LCA actually attests

The Form ETA-9035 LCA, filed via the FLAG portal, is an attestation by the employer — not a substantive adjudication. The four central attestations are:

The wage paid will be the higher of (a) the prevailing wage at the relevant level for the SOC × MSA, or (b) the actual wage paid to similarly employed workers at the worksite.
Working conditions for the H-1B worker will not adversely affect those of similarly employed U.S. workers.
There is no strike or lockout in progress at the worksite.
Notice of the LCA filing has been provided to the employer's workforce.

DOL's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) audits a sample of certified LCAs each year. Wage-attestation violations (paying below the prevailing wage or the actual wage, whichever is higher) are the most common finding and can lead to back-wage orders, civil penalties, and debarment from H-1B sponsorship for one to three years per 29 CFR 655 Subpart H.

Methodology & limitations

This widget computes Level 1-4 wages by linear interpolation between BLS OEWS public-API percentile breakpoints (p10, p25, p50, p75) at the state aggregate. Specifically:

Level 1 (17th pct) = p10 + (p25 − p10) × 7/15
Level 2 (34th pct) = p25 + (p50 − p25) × 9/25
Level 3 (50th pct) = p50
Level 4 (67th pct) = p50 + (p75 − p50) × 17/25

Spot checks against the OFLC FLAG search across 30 SOC × MSA pairs in 2026-Q1 showed agreement within ±3%. Cells where BLS suppresses the state wage for confidentiality (small-sample disclosure rule) are flagged as suppressed in the widget — fall back to the National figure or pull the MSA-specific FLAG number.

The widget is for scoping and audit — pre-filing offer review, internal compensation benchmarking, candidate offer comparisons. It is not a substitute for the OFLC FLAG search on an actual filing.

Bottom line

Use this widget to scope an offer or audit a draft LCA before filing — it gets you to within a few percent of the FLAG number in seconds. For the actual filing, pull the MSA-specific OFLC figure at flag.dol.gov/wage-data using the same SOC code shown in the result.

Frequently asked questions

What is a prevailing wage and why does it matter for my visa case?: The prevailing wage is the average wage paid to similarly employed workers for a specific occupation in the area of intended employment. For H-1B and H-1B1/E-3 LCAs, the employer must attest to paying at or above the prevailing wage for the worksite MSA and SOC. For PERM, the prevailing wage determines whether the U.S. labor market test produced a qualified applicant willing to work at that figure. An offer below the prevailing wage is the most common reason an LCA is later flagged or a PERM is denied.
How does DOL pick which level applies to a given job?: DOL OFLC assigns Level 1-4 based on the position's experience, education, training, supervision, and use of independent judgment per the 2009 OFLC Wage Methodology. Most graduate-degree research roles default to Level 2 or 3; a fresh STEM master's hire is usually Level 1 unless the duties demand independent judgment. Level 4 is reserved for roles with supervision authority and complete responsibility. The standardized Form ETA-9141 worksheet guides the level selection.
Why are the figures here different from the FLAG search?: Two reasons. First, FLAG searches are MSA-level (e.g., San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA) and our v1 widget aggregates to the state level — figures will differ between San Jose Software Developers and Fresno Software Developers within California. Second, FLAG uses the OFLC Online Wage Library which receives a separate annual file from BLS with its own statistical adjustments. Our interpolation from public OEWS percentiles tracks within ~3% on spot checks but is not the legally binding number. Always pull the MSA-specific FLAG figure before filing.
Can the employer pay above the prevailing wage?: Yes, and most do. The prevailing wage is a floor, not a ceiling. Many tech and finance employers pay 20-50% above Level 4 to be competitive in the labor market. The LCA only requires the offered wage to be at or above the level the employer designated — it does not cap upward.
What if my occupation isn't in the dropdown?: v1 covers 23 occupations with high H-1B and PERM filing volume. For occupations not yet in the widget, run the FLAG wage search directly using your SOC code (the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook gives the 6-digit SOC). The same Level 1-4 framework applies to every SOC.
Do I use the H-1B figure or the PERM figure?: They're the same number. DOL uses the same OFLC prevailing wage for H-1B/H-1B1/E-3 LCAs and PERM I-140s. The classification (H-1B specialty occupation vs. PERM EB-2/EB-3 Schedule A) changes which form you file and the experience/education requirements you must meet, but the prevailing wage table is shared.
How often does the data refresh?: BLS releases May OEWS in April of the following year (so May 2024 data was published April 2025; May 2026 lands April 2027). DOL OFLC adopts the new file each July 1. We rebuild this widget after each annual release.