Why H1B Salary Data Is Different From Other Sources
Every H1B sponsorship requires a certified Labor Condition Application (LCA), a public document where the employer discloses the exact wage they'll pay. This isn't a survey or anonymous self-reporting; it's a legal attestation. Which means the VisaTrack salary data is more reliable than Glassdoor or Levels.fyi for H1B roles specifically.
The numbers below come from our database of 239,000+ certified LCA filings.
The 20 Highest Paying H1B Job Titles
| Rank | Job Title | Avg Salary | Petitions Filed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Attending Physician | $314,768 | 69 |
| 2 | Psychiatrist | $290,336 | 51 |
| 3 | Physician | $289,659 | 223 |
| 4 | Hospitalist Physician | $271,986 | 279 |
| 5 | Principal | $265,584 | 85 |
| 6 | Hospitalist | $263,941 | 303 |
| 7 | Nephrologist | $261,606 | 52 |
| 8 | Internal Medicine Physician | $242,313 | 122 |
| 9 | Software Engineering LMTS | $239,984 | 130 |
| 10 | Family Medicine Physician | $238,307 | 128 |
| 11 | Primary Care Physician | $237,267 | 85 |
| 12 | Executive Director | $229,719 | 51 |
| 13 | Professor | $228,165 | 75 |
| 14 | Chief Executive Officer | $227,783 | 131 |
| 15 | Principal Software Development Engineer | $225,379 | 83 |
| 16 | Project Leader | $224,054 | 56 |
| 17 | Software Engineering Manager | $223,327 | 187 |
| 18 | Manager III, Software Dev | $218,566 | 163 |
| 19 | Director of Engineering | $218,543 | 55 |
| 20 | Pediatrician | $215,476 | 88 |
What This List Actually Tells You
Medicine dominates the top
Seven of the top ten H1B job titles by salary are physician roles. This isn't surprising. Medicine has a physician shortage, the training is specific and credentialed, and foreign-trained doctors with U.S. board certifications command the same wages as domestic graduates.
The Attending Physician average of $314,768 reflects both the seniority of that title and the acute shortage of physicians in many parts of the country. Psychiatry and nephrology are among the most undersupplied specialties, which explains why Psychiatrists ($290,336) and Nephrologists ($261,606) rank so high.
Tech roles appear in the 9-19 range
Software Engineering LMTS at $239,984 ("LMTS" typically stands for "Level" or a company-specific senior designation) reflects the compensation at large tech companies for distinguished engineers. Principal Software Development Engineer ($225,379) and Software Engineering Manager ($223,327) are roles at companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google where senior technical and management tracks diverge.
These aren't entry-level tech jobs. The H1B workers filling these roles have typically been in the U.S. for years on earlier H1B petitions, accruing seniority.
What the petition counts reveal
Notice that the highest-paying roles have relatively few petitions. Attending Physicians: 69 filings. Nephrologists: 52. These are niche-volume roles. Compare that to Software Engineer (10,397 petitions) or Software Developer (8,025 petitions), which appear much lower in average salary: about $146,396 and $110,171, respectively.
High salary and high volume rarely coexist in H1B data. The roles with thousands of petitions are the roles where staffing firms compete and wages cluster closer to the prevailing wage minimum.
The Range Within Tech
The tech salary story has two distinct halves. If you look at Software Engineers by employer:
- Netflix: avg $243,346 (78 petitions)
- Meta: avg $215,213 (1,062 petitions)
- Google: avg $199,158 (1,292 petitions)
- Nvidia: avg $194,861 (191 petitions)
- Skilltune Technologies: avg $99,270 (210 petitions)
- Natsoft Corporation: avg $119,368 (82 petitions)
Geography Matters Too
Software Engineers in California average $187,469 on H1B filings. The same title in Texas averages $104,507. In New Jersey, $105,642. California's salaries are real, but California also has the highest income tax rate in the country at 13.3%.
Search your job title and employer → | Explore salary ranges by state → | See all job categories →All salary figures from DOL OFLC certified LCA disclosure data, most recent fiscal year.