{"main_topic":"immigration","sub_topic":"dol_oflc","topic":"h1b_wage_offers","key":"immigration/dol_oflc/h1b_wage_offers","version":"1.0.0","year_min":2020,"year_max":2026,"year_gaps":[],"update_frequency":"quarterly","detail_levels":["counties","states"],"default_detail":"states","path_template":"immigration/h1b_wage_offers/year={year}/{detail}.parquet","grain":["year","county_fips","occupation_group"],"title":"H-1B Wage Offers","summary":"Median annual wage offered on the H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 positions the Labor Department certified for Georgia worksites each fiscal year, by county and occupation group.","description":"The median annual wage employers offered on the specialty-occupation positions (H-1B, H-1B1 Chile/Singapore and E-3 Australia) whose labor condition applications DOL's Office of Foreign Labor Certification certified for Georgia worksites, by federal fiscal year, weighted by positions certified: statewide by occupation group and by the county of the LCA's first worksite, with the positions and LCAs behind each median. The same LCAs as h1b_lca_positions, which counts the positions. From OFLC's LCA program disclosure data, FY2020 through the third quarter of FY2026.","source":"U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Foreign Labor Certification: LCA program (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3) disclosure data (Performance Data), FY2020-FY2026 Q3","source_url":"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor/performance","endpoint":"/api/v1/immigration/h1b_wage_offers","columns":[{"name":"year","type":"integer","role":"year","nullable":false,"label":"Year","short_description":"","description":"Federal fiscal year (October 1 - September 30) of DOL's final determination on the LCA, NOT the calendar year. FY2020-FY2026; FY2026 is partial (decisions through June 30, 2026).","valid_values":null,"example":2025,"unit":null,"value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":null,"key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"county_fips","type":"string","role":"fk_county","nullable":true,"label":"County FIPS","short_description":"","description":"5-digit FIPS of the county of the LCA's first worksite. NULL on statewide rows. County placement follows h1b_lca_positions; the counts in the next sentences are that topic's, over all of its Georgia LCAs of every case status. Where the worksite street address geocodes with certainty to another county and a second sign agrees (DOL's county holds under 5% of the worksite ZIP's residents, or the address lies at least 500 m from DOL's county in a county holding some of the ZIP's residents), the address's county replaces DOL's (7,319 LCAs); it also fills 2,597 counties DOL left blank. Where DOL's stated county is impossible for the worksite ZIP code (none of the ZIP's 2020 population lives there), it is replaced by the ZIP's county only when certain - at least 99% of the ZIP in that county and the city confirming the ZIP (112 LCAs); 533 LCAs that fail the test keep DOL's county (see h1b_lca_positions' limitations). Of the LCAs in this table, the address replaced DOL's county on 6,436 LCAs and the ZIP rule on 88 LCAs; 442 LCAs failing the ZIP test keep DOL's county. A county DOL left blank is filled from the address or, failing that, the ZIP's population-dominant county; one neither can place counts in the statewide rows only.","valid_values":null,"example":"13121","unit":null,"value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":null,"key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"occupation_group","type":"string","role":"categorical","nullable":false,"label":"Occupation Group","short_description":"Occupation group of the position (from its SOC code), or all.","description":"Occupation group of the LCA, from its SOC code, as in h1b_lca_positions: 'software_developers' (SOC 15-1252 and its 2010 predecessors 15-1132/15-1133), 'other_computer_mathematical' (the rest of SOC major group 15), 'architecture_engineering' (17), 'management_business_finance' (11 and 13), 'education_health' (25, 29 and 31), 'other' (every other group); 'all' = every occupation. Statewide rows only; county rows are 'all'.","valid_values":["all","software_developers","other_computer_mathematical","architecture_engineering","management_business_finance","education_health","other"],"example":"all","unit":null,"value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":null,"key_metric_grain_contributor":true,"metric_component":null},{"name":"median_annual_wage_offer","type":"number","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Median Annual Wage Offer (H-1B)","short_description":"Median annual wage offered on certified H-1B/H-1B1/E-3 LCA positions, in dollars.","description":"Median annual wage (US dollars) offered on the LCA positions DOL certified in the fiscal year (WAGE_RATE_OF_PAY_FROM where WAGE_UNIT_OF_PAY = 'Year'; the bottom of an offered range), excluding offers impossible for a certified LCA (below $15,080 or below the LCA's own annual prevailing wage; see limitations), weighted by positions certified and rounded to the cent. At least the prevailing wage by rule; an offer on an application, not a worker's pay. Never sum or average medians across rows.","valid_values":null,"example":109283.0,"unit":"currency","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"No certified LCA position in the cell has a valid annual wage offer - an annual offer not excluded as impossible (num_positions_with_wage is 0).","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"num_positions_with_wage","type":"integer","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Positions in the Median","short_description":"Certified LCA positions with an annual wage - the median's N.","description":"Number of LCA positions certified in the fiscal year with a valid annual wage offer - the N the median is taken over. Equals h1b_lca_positions' num_positions_certified minus the positions on LCAs paid per hour, month, week or two weeks, and minus the 1 position whose annual offer is impossible for a certified LCA - below $15,080 or below the LCA's own annual prevailing wage (FY2021: 1).","valid_values":null,"example":24500,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":null,"key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":"denominator"},{"name":"num_applications_with_wage","type":"integer","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"LCAs in the Median","short_description":"Certified LCAs with an annual wage behind the median.","description":"Number of distinct LCAs behind the median: those with at least one certified position and a valid annual wage offer (not excluded as impossible; see limitations). A small number means the median reflects few employers.","valid_values":null,"example":19000,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":null,"key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null}],"key_metric":"median_annual_wage_offer","usage":"Star-schema fact table. State rows (county_fips NULL) carry one row per occupation_group plus 'all'; county rows are totals ('all') on a complete 159-county grid. median_annual_wage_offer is a median: never sum or average it across rows. `year` is the federal fiscal year; the last year is partial. Read directly with DuckDB over Parquet.","limitations":"Federal fiscal years (October 1 - September 30), not calendar years: `year` is the fiscal year of DOL's final determination on the labor condition application (LCA). FY2026 is PARTIAL: decisions through June 30, 2026 only (DOL's cumulative Q3 file), and it holds the April-June cap-season filing wave; do not compare it with complete years. Measured on the complete years FY2020-FY2025, the median over decisions from October through the same end date ran $123 to $1,203 below the full-year median every year, so FY2026's partial figure likely reads low by about that much. What the wage is: the annual wage the employer attested it will pay on a certified H-1B, H-1B1 or E-3 LCA (WAGE_RATE_OF_PAY_FROM - the bottom of the range where the LCA gives a range), which must be at least the higher of the employer's actual wage and the prevailing wage for the occupation and area (20 CFR 655.731). It is an offer on an application, not a worker's pay: an LCA is not a visa, many certified positions are never filled, and one worker can appear on several LCAs. The median is weighted by positions certified - each LCA's offer counts once per certified position - over the positions h1b_lca_positions counts as certified. Georgia medians: FY2020 $87,194; FY2021 $90,000; FY2022 $94,203; FY2023 $100,000; FY2024 $103,000; FY2025 $106,000; FY2026 $112,000. Annual offers only: LCAs paid per hour, month, week or two weeks (7%-9% of certified positions a year) are excluded, not converted - the LCA does not state the hours, and part-time positions exist; positions in the median plus positions excluded equal h1b_lca_positions' Georgia positions certified in every year. An annual offer below $15,080 (the federal minimum wage for a full-time year) or below the LCA's own annual prevailing wage is impossible for a certified LCA (20 CFR 655.731) and is excluded: 1 LCA (FY2021: $240,000 on 1 position) - internally inconsistent, whichever field is wrong. Very large offers are kept as filed: 152 certified Georgia LCAs offer $500,000 a year or more (up to $1,713,000), 15 of them about ten times their prevailing wage (plausibly a typed extra digit, but not provably wrong); dropping those 15 would change 5 published medians (FY2020 Georgia $87,194 -> $87,185.50; FY2025 county 13027 $53,790 -> $53,053; FY2025 county 13135 $104,365.38 -> $103,932; FY2025 education_health $74,240 -> $73,886; FY2026 county 13021 $67,500 -> $67,268.78). Geography is the LCA's FIRST worksite, placed exactly as in h1b_lca_positions (DOL's county, corrected from the geocoded street address where certain, then by the certain-only ZIP rule; blank counties - most of the FY2025 fourth quarter - from the address or the ZIP's population-dominant county) - see that topic's limitations for the counts and risks. LCAs with no placeable county count in the state rows only (FY2025: 11 positions on 11 LCAs), so county positions sum to fewer than the state's in those years. `occupation_group` uses h1b_lca_positions' groups (software developers, other computer and mathematical, architecture and engineering, management and business, education and health, other); county rows are totals ('all'). A county median may rest on one or two LCAs - read it with num_applications_with_wage. No suppression: rows are applications, not people, and DOL publishes each offer with the employer's name. A median is NULL only where no certified annual-wage position exists.","null_semantics":{"suppressed_to_null":false,"zero_is_real":true},"available_years":[2020,2021,2022,2023,2024,2025,2026],"schema_hash":"381e247ee62c271e32f9c062fff0d104a21752501190dc656bbe7d5374844c65","tags":["immigration","u.s. department of labor, employment and training administration, office of foreign labor certification: lca program","h1b_wage_offers"],"granularity_description":"One row per year, county_fips, occupation_group (geography columns are NULL at higher aggregation levels).","example_queries":[{"description":"Latest year (2026), states detail","query":"SELECT * FROM h1b_wage_offers WHERE year = 2026 LIMIT 100"},{"description":"Filter by occupation_group = all","query":"SELECT * FROM h1b_wage_offers WHERE occupation_group = 'all' AND year = 2026 LIMIT 100"}],"foreign_keys":[{"column":"county_fips","target_object":"counties","target_columns":["county_fips"],"attribute_columns_added":["county_name"],"scope":"global"}],"filters":[{"param":"year","kind":"year_exact","type":"integer","multi_value":false,"enum_enforced":false,"values":null},{"param":"year_min","kind":"year_range","type":"integer","multi_value":false,"enum_enforced":false,"values":null},{"param":"year_max","kind":"year_range","type":"integer","multi_value":false,"enum_enforced":false,"values":null},{"param":"detail","kind":"detail","type":"string","multi_value":false,"enum_enforced":true,"values":["counties","states"],"default":"states"},{"param":"county_fips","kind":"foreign_key","column":"county_fips","type":"string","multi_value":true,"enum_enforced":false,"values":null},{"param":"occupation_group","kind":"categorical","column":"occupation_group","type":"string","multi_value":true,"enum_enforced":true,"values":["all","software_developers","other_computer_mathematical","architecture_engineering","management_business_finance","education_health","other"],"has_total":true,"total_value":"all","requires_single_value":false,"nullable":false,"null_filter_token":null}],"filter_hints":[],"values_endpoint":"/api/v1/immigration/h1b_wage_offers/values"}