Entry-level H-1B salaries by city
Published November 10, 2026 · Data through FY2026 Q3
Entry-level pay on an H-1B varies a lot by where the job is. A Level I role in one metro area can pay tens of thousands of dollars more than the same level in another. This guide uses certified Labor Condition Application (LCA) filings at prevailing wage Level I, the entry level, to show what employers offer in different cities, both across all jobs and for software engineers specifically.
What "entry level" means here
Every LCA carries a prevailing wage level from I to IV. Level I is the entry level: the employer is describing a job that requires a basic understanding of the work and is performed under close supervision. It is a description of the job's requirements, not a guarantee about the worker's background, and it does not mean the worker is a new graduate. We use it here because it is the closest consistent measure of "entry level" in the public data.
Prevailing wages differ by area, so the minimum an employer must pay for a Level I job is already higher in some metros than others. Offered salaries also reflect which employers hire in each area and what kinds of jobs they file for.
National benchmarks
Across the whole country, Level I filings looked like this:
| Group | Filings | 10th pct. | 25th pct. | Median | 75th pct. | 90th pct. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All jobs, Level I | 168,119 | $59,000 | $69,471 | $83,959 | $104,779 | $139,050 |
| Software Engineer, Level I | 37,067 | $82,971 | $86,000 | $101,000 | $129,000 | $148,400 |
The median entry-level software engineer offer is $17,041 above the all-jobs Level I median. Use these two medians as yardsticks for the city tables below.
Highest-paying metros for entry-level roles, all jobs
These are the 20 metro areas with the highest Level I median, among metros with at least 300 Level I filings:
| Metro area | Filings | 25th pct. | Median | 75th pct. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle, WA | 8,983 | $108,887 | $129,000 | $133,000 |
| San Jose, CA | 8,250 | $100,000 | $127,712 | $150,000 |
| San Francisco, CA | 7,059 | $92,934 | $123,531 | $148,350 |
| Fayetteville, AR | 588 | $72,000 | $108,049 | $121,268 |
| Washington, DC | 6,343 | $76,055 | $94,000 | $104,464 |
| Bridgeport, CT | 351 | $80,729 | $93,205 | $116,875 |
| Sacramento, CA | 500 | $75,000 | $91,874 | $100,805 |
| Charlotte, NC | 1,728 | $72,738 | $91,291 | $92,000 |
| Austin, TX | 3,544 | $79,062 | $90,355 | $116,309 |
| Portland, OR | 550 | $79,289 | $89,353 | $103,947 |
| New York, NY | 21,471 | $74,589 | $87,125 | $105,718 |
| San Diego, CA | 1,136 | $75,897 | $86,250 | $110,000 |
| Boston, MA | 6,219 | $72,988 | $86,000 | $108,160 |
| Providence, RI | 361 | $72,100 | $85,280 | $103,372 |
| Raleigh, NC | 1,171 | $72,904 | $85,000 | $92,465 |
| Dallas, TX | 11,012 | $72,000 | $84,094 | $90,896 |
| Richmond, VA | 614 | $73,000 | $83,637 | $91,097 |
| Denver, CO | 1,090 | $71,640 | $83,154 | $95,347 |
| Hartford, CT | 378 | $72,000 | $82,306 | $97,375 |
| Phoenix, AZ | 2,666 | $67,980 | $82,000 | $90,000 |
Three West Coast metros sit well above the rest. Seattle's Level I median of $129,000 is $45,041 above the national all-jobs Level I median, about 1.5 times as high. After the top three, medians drop quickly: Washington, DC, in fifth place, is at $94,000, and most of the list falls between about $82,000 and $92,000.
Fayetteville, AR stands out as a smaller metro with a high median. The reason is one employer: Walmart's headquarters in Bentonville is in this metro, and Walmart accounts for 320 of its 588 Level I filings. The figure mostly describes Walmart's entry-level pay, so read it that way. Among Level I software engineer filings in Fayetteville, Walmart's share is even higher: 219 of 305.
Where entry-level H-1B jobs actually are
The highest medians are not where most entry-level filings happen. Here are the 15 metros with the most Level I filings:
| Metro area | Level I filings | Median |
|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | 21,471 | $87,125 |
| Dallas, TX | 11,012 | $84,094 |
| Seattle, WA | 8,983 | $129,000 |
| San Jose, CA | 8,250 | $127,712 |
| San Francisco, CA | 7,059 | $123,531 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 6,413 | $78,000 |
| Washington, DC | 6,343 | $94,000 |
| Chicago, IL | 6,229 | $79,000 |
| Boston, MA | 6,219 | $86,000 |
| Houston, TX | 4,441 | $78,015 |
| Atlanta, GA | 4,317 | $81,950 |
| Philadelphia, PA | 3,572 | $80,288 |
| Austin, TX | 3,544 | $90,355 |
| Phoenix, AZ | 2,666 | $82,000 |
| Detroit, MI | 2,486 | $79,373 |
New York has by far the most entry-level filings, about twice as many as Dallas, yet its median of $87,125 is close to the national figure. Several large markets, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Detroit, have Level I medians below the national all-jobs median of $83,959.
Entry-level software engineers by city
For software engineers, here are the 15 metros with the highest Level I median, among metros with at least 100 such filings:
| Metro area | Filings | 25th pct. | Median | 75th pct. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose, CA | 2,340 | $148,400 | $149,500 | $160,000 |
| San Francisco, CA | 2,210 | $135,699 | $144,900 | $156,800 |
| Seattle, WA | 5,322 | $129,000 | $129,000 | $133,272 |
| Fayetteville, AR | 305 | $90,355 | $116,132 | $122,600 |
| San Diego, CA | 197 | $102,794 | $115,000 | $129,000 |
| Boston, MA | 808 | $107,557 | $112,040 | $129,000 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 717 | $102,357 | $105,000 | $125,000 |
| New York, NY | 3,574 | $95,500 | $103,250 | $128,000 |
| Portland, OR | 125 | $90,000 | $102,898 | $116,275 |
| Washington, DC | 1,707 | $97,200 | $101,421 | $115,000 |
| Sacramento, CA | 139 | $96,678 | $100,090 | $103,000 |
| Denver, CO | 230 | $94,578 | $98,738 | $110,000 |
| Baltimore, MD | 201 | $97,258 | $97,614 | $100,000 |
| Trenton, NJ | 199 | $85,098 | $95,493 | $96,000 |
| Durham, NC | 123 | $94,515 | $94,515 | $95,680 |
San Jose's Level I software engineer median of $149,500 is $48,500 above the national Level I software engineer median, about 1.5 times as high. Seattle has the most filings on this list, 5,322, and an unusually tight spread: its 25th percentile and median are both $129,000. A tight band like that usually means many filings were made at the same salary, often by a small number of large employers, so the median says more about those employers than about the whole market.
Outside the top three, entry-level software engineer medians cluster between about $95,000 and $116,000.
Reading these numbers carefully
- Higher pay often comes with higher costs. This data does not include cost of living or taxes, so a higher median is not automatically a better deal.
- Small samples move more. Metros with a few hundred filings can shift noticeably from year to year.
- Employer mix matters. A metro's median reflects who files there. One large employer can set the pattern for a whole area.
Figures are base salary only, with no bonus or stock. A certified LCA is not a visa approval, and one filing can cover several workers. This is general information, not legal or immigration advice.
How we calculated this
Figures cover certified H-1B LCA filings in FY2025–FY2026, where FY2026 includes only Q1–Q3: 931,595 filings in total, with an overall median of $122,699. We kept filings at prevailing wage Level I, grouped them by the worksite's metro area, and computed percentiles of annualized base salary. Metro rankings require at least 300 filings (all jobs) or 100 filings (software engineers). See the methodology.