Guide · prevailing wage & wage levels
How to look up the prevailing wage for your H-1B offer (2026)
Every H-1B offer has an official minimum wage attached — the prevailing wage for its occupation and worksite county — and, since March 2026, the wage level above that minimum decides how many lottery entries you get. Here is how to find both in the government's own system, in about five minutes.
Step by step on flag.dol.gov
- Find your SOC occupation code. Your offer letter's job title is not what DOL uses — occupations are classified by SOC code (for example, Software Developers is 15-1252). Search your role at onetonline.org, or take the SOC code from a previous LCA if you are transferring.
- Open the OFLC Wage Search on FLAG. Go to flag.dol.gov → Wage Data → Wage Search (the successor of the retired FLC Data Center, which shut down July 2024). Select the current wage year.
- Select the worksite county — not the company HQ. Prevailing wage is set by the county where you will actually work. Remote and hybrid arrangements follow the worksite listed on the LCA; a different county can mean a different wage level for the same salary.
- Read the four levels and place your offer. The search returns the Level I–IV annual wages for your SOC and county. Your offered base salary must meet or exceed the prevailing wage the employer attests; the level your salary reaches now also sets your lottery entries.
Official source: OFLC Wage Search at flag.dol.gov. OfferBrief is not affiliated with the Department of Labor.
Why the level matters: the 2026 weighted lottery
| OFLC wage level | Lottery entries | Projected selection rate |
|---|---|---|
| Level I | ×1 | ~15.3% |
| Level II | ×2 | ~30.6% |
| Level III | ×3 | ~45.9% |
| Level IV | ×4 | ~61.2% |
Full context in the weighted lottery explainer.
Estimated level thresholds for common offers
Interpolated from public BLS OEWS percentiles per metro — orientation only, the official county-level figures on FLAG govern:
| Role & metro | Est. Level II | Est. Level III | Est. Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software Engineer, New York, NY | $141,300 | $167,400 | $193,400 |
| Software Engineer, San Francisco, CA | $166,100 | $187,600 | $209,100 |
| Software Engineer, Seattle, WA | $142,400 | $170,000 | $197,600 |
| Software Engineer, Austin, TX | $119,100 | $138,400 | $157,700 |
| Data Analyst, New York, NY | $113,700 | $137,500 | $161,300 |
| Data Analyst, Chicago, IL | $94,300 | $111,400 | $128,400 |
Skip the manual work
Request a free H-1B Offer Briefand we run the check for your specific offer: estimated wage level, lottery entries, prevailing-wage sanity check, and the employer's recent filing record.
Common questions
Is the prevailing wage the same as the market salary?
No. Prevailing wage is a regulatory minimum computed from OEWS survey data per occupation and county. Market offers, especially in tech, often sit well above it — but an offer below the prevailing wage for its stated level cannot be lawfully filed.
What happened to flcdatacenter.com?
The FLC Data Center was retired on July 1, 2024. The official replacement is the OFLC Wage Search inside the FLAG system at flag.dol.gov, which also hosts downloadable wage files.
My offer is below the Level I wage. What does that mean?
An H-1B employer must pay at least the prevailing wage for the attested level (or its actual wage for the role, if higher). An offer below Level I for the occupation and county is a structural red flag — raise it with the employer and consider advice from a qualified immigration attorney.