H-1B prevailing wage
Software Developers in San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA: median H-1B wage $195,000
Based on 13 certified Labor Condition Applications
filed in FY2025 for SOC 15-1252
(Software Developers) in MSA 41860.
⚠ Small sample size (13 filings). Numbers are indicative only; a single high-paying employer can skew the distribution.
Wage distribution
| Percentile | Annual wage | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 10th (p10) | $167,000 | Bottom decile — entry-level / Wage Level I |
| 25th (p25) | $180,000 | Lower quartile — early career |
| 50th (median) | $195,000 | Typical filing |
| 75th (p75) | $225,000 | Upper quartile — senior |
| 90th (p90) | $256,000 | Top decile — staff / principal |
| Mean | $205,015 | Arithmetic average |
DOL prevailing-wage floor vs. actual offers
The median prevailing wage the DOL set for these filings was $180,000. The median actual offered wage on the certified LCAs was $195,000 — a 8.3% premium over the floor. Employers must offer at least the prevailing wage; most offer above it because market wages typically exceed the OES-derived floor in tech-heavy MSAs.
What you'll take home on this salary
A Software Developers on H-1B earning the median $195,000 in CA can use our H-1B take-home calculator for CA to estimate after-tax pay, including federal income tax, FICA (Social Security + Medicare), and state income tax.
Source & methodology
- Source: DOL OFLC LCA Disclosure Data (US government public domain, 17 USC § 105).
- Scope: certified LCAs only. Denied / withdrawn filings excluded.
- Visa classes included: H-1B, H-1B1 Singapore, H-1B1 Chile, E-3 Australia.
- Wages normalized to annual: hourly × 2080, monthly × 12, weekly × 52.
- Percentiles use linear interpolation (NumPy / Excel
PERCENTILE.INC). - Pages with fewer than 10 certified filings are not generated. Pages with fewer than 25 are flagged as low-confidence above.
- As of: FY2025, regenerated 2026-04-28.