H-1B minimum salary
There is no single national H-1B minimum salary. Official DOL guidance ties the required wage to the higher of the job's prevailing wage or the employer's actual wage for similarly employed workers, plus any higher applicable wage law.
Primary source
DOL WHD
LCA source
FLAG
Verified
2026-06-19
As of , H-1B minimum salary means the required wage for a specific job and worksite: the highest applicable floor after comparing prevailing wage, actual wage, and other wage laws.
Page updated: . Last verified: . Date retrieved: . VisaSignal is a public filing research tool, not legal advice or a case-specific wage calculator.
Required-wage formula
The useful research question is not a national H-1B minimum. It is which wage floor controls after the job, worksite, employer pay practice, and wage source are known.
The wage for the occupation and area, using an NPWC determination or another permitted source shown in the LCA context.
The wage the employer pays similarly employed workers, which can be higher than the public prevailing-wage benchmark.
Any higher federal, state, or local wage floor still matters, so the required wage is not solved by one national number.
How to read it
Use this page to separate legal required-wage language from the public LCA salary rows that VisaSignal indexes.
The required wage is tied to the specific occupation, worksite area, employer pay practice, and any higher federal, state, or local wage rule. A generic national minimum can be misleading.
DOL describes the H-1B required wage as the higher of the prevailing wage for the occupation and area, or the employer's actual wage for similarly employed workers.
A wage level is not just a job title label. Review the prevailing-wage source, SOC code, worksite, duties, experience, and whether the LCA row used OEWS or another legitimate wage source.
VisaSignal exposes official filing wage fields and source caveats so you can compare patterns. It does not decide the legal required wage for a specific petition.
Checklist
The same salary number can mean different things depending on source, occupation, location, wage unit, and whether the actual-wage comparison is higher.
Identify the occupation, SOC code, worksite city/area, wage unit, and job duties before comparing salary numbers.
FLAG says employers may use an NPWC prevailing wage determination or another legitimate source when allowed; the source selected matters when reading a filing.
The DOL WHD fact sheet also points to the actual wage paid to similarly employed workers, so the lower public prevailing-wage number may not be the final required wage.
Compare imported LCA salary rows by employer, role, SOC code, and location, then keep the official DOL caveats visible before drawing conclusions.
Official-source trail
The content above relies on DOL wage guidance and FLAG LCA program instructions, while VisaSignal salary pages rely on imported DOL LCA disclosure rows.
Audit the VisaSignal layer
The official links above are the primary records. Review how VisaSignal normalizes those records and when its public imports last refreshed.
Continue researching
Use these pages to compare salary rows, source freshness, and public disclosure caveats without treating filing data as legal advice.
LCA and PERM rows are filing signals, not USCIS approvals, green-card approvals, legal advice, or outcome predictions.
FAQ
There is not one national H-1B minimum salary. DOL describes the required wage as the higher of the local prevailing wage for the occupation or the employer's actual wage for similarly employed workers, with any higher applicable federal, state, or local rule still relevant.
Wage levels are part of prevailing-wage research for a specific occupation and worksite. They should be read with the SOC code, duties, experience, wage source, and LCA fields rather than treated as a universal salary scale.
For research purposes, the H-1B salary requirement is best read as a required-wage comparison: prevailing wage for the job and worksite, the employer's actual wage for similarly employed workers, and any higher applicable wage law.
Not always. The prevailing wage is one required-wage input, but DOL's H-1B required-wage framing also includes the employer's actual wage for similarly employed workers and any higher applicable wage rule.
No. VisaSignal shows official LCA wage fields and links to DOL sources for research. A case-specific required wage depends on facts outside the public filing row and should be checked with the official DOL tools or qualified counsel.
Use the H-1B salary database to compare imported DOL LCA wage rows by role, employer, SOC code, and worksite. Those records are filing signals, not total compensation or a guarantee of sponsorship.
No. A DOL-certified LCA is not the same as USCIS H-1B petition approval. It is an official labor-condition filing signal that should be interpreted with that limit.
No. PERM certification is one step in an employment-based green card process. It does not mean a green card, I-140 petition, or adjustment of status was approved.
No. Official filing history can show recent activity, roles, worksites, and wage signals, but it does not guarantee future sponsorship or predict legal outcomes.