Chart: Employers can get steep discounts by paying H-1B workers below the median wage: H-1B prevailing wage levels for ‘Software Developers, Applications,’ in the Washington, D.C., region

Table 2

Employers can get steep discounts by paying H-1B workers below the median wage: H-1B prevailing wage levels for 'Software Developers, Applications,' in the Washington, D.C., region

Wage level	Percentile of surveyed wages by occupation & region	Annual salary	Discount from median (%)	Discount from median ($)
1	17th	$75,712	36%	$41,746
2	34th	$96,595	18%	$20,863
3	50th (median)	$117,458	—	—
4	67th	$138,341	—	($20,883)

Note: Table reflects H-1B prevailing wage levels for Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code 15-1132, which corresponds to SOC title “Software Developers, Applications,” for Washington-Arlington-Alexandria (area code 47900).

Source: Authors’ analysis of “Software Developers, Applications” data for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Division, U.S. Department of Labor: Foreign Labor Certification (FLC) Data Center Online Wage Library, retrieved February 5, 2020. FLC Data Center data are based on the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor.

This chart appears in:

H-1B visas and prevailing wage levels: A majority of H-1B employers—including major U.S. tech firms—use the program to pay migrant workers well below market wages

Previous chart: « Most H-1B positions are certified at wage levels below the median wage: Frequency of wage levels reported on approved H-1B Labor Condition Applications (LCAs), June 1, 2009, to July 30, 2010, and fiscal years 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019

Next chart: Top 30 H-1B employers had over 200,000 H-1B positions certified at below-median wage levels: Number of H-1B certified positions at each wage level, top 30 H-1B employers, fiscal 2019 »