Foreign Language Professor salary

At a glance

• Mostly Level I (entry-level). 76% of Foreign Language Professor filings are Level I, compared with 19% across all H-1B filings.
• Top filer: Us Army Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. 59 filings (7% of the total), median $84,383.
• Median up 22% since FY2020. From $58,783 in FY2020 to $71,965 in FY2026 (Q1–Q3). Nominal, not adjusted for inflation.

Foreign Language Professor H-1B salary overview

Employers filed 816 certified H-1B Labor Condition Applications for Foreign Language Professor jobs in FY2025–FY2026 (occupation code 25-1124, Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary). The median base salary is $69,336, 43% below the median for all H-1B filings ($122,699), and half of the filings fall between $60,000 and $84,383. The most common wage level is Level I (entry-level), at 76% of filings. Salinas, CA has the most filings (63), and Us Army Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center is the employer that files the most (59).

Top employers for Foreign Language Professor

Us Army Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center59 filings · 7%$84,383 The President & Fellows of Middlebury College34 filings · 4%$66,186 University of Michigan27 filings · 3%$60,282 Duke University18 filings · 2%$60,722 Yale University14 filings · 2%$97,300 University of California, Berkeley12 filings · 1%$93,305 University of Oklahoma12 filings · 1%$52,000 The Trustees Of Princeton University11 filings · 1%$86,950 University of Georgia; OGE11 filings · 1%$65,000 Harvard University10 filings · 1%$88,200

Employers with the most Foreign Language Professor filings. Bar: share of all Foreign Language Professor filings. Figure: median base salary.

Pay by level

Foreign Language Professor pay by city

Median base salary in each metro area. Rent: HUD Fair Market Rent, FY2027.

What a Foreign Language Professor does

Teach languages and literature courses in languages other than English. Includes teachers of American Sign Language (ASL). Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

Typical tasks

• Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
• Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
• Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
• Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
• Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as how to speak and write a foreign language and the cultural aspects of areas where a particular language is used.
• Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in scholarly journals, books, or electronic media.

Preparation

Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed. Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

O*NET occupation: Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary (25-1124.00). This section includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.

H-1B pay vs. all U.S. workers

Across all U.S. workers in this occupation (Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary), the median annual wage was $79,350 in May 2025, with 19,830 people employed. The median H-1B base salary in FY2025–FY2026 is $69,336, 13% lower.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). BLS wages cover all wage and salary workers and include some incentive pay; H-1B figures are the base salary offered on certified LCAs. The two sources cover different periods. BLS reports wages of $239,200 or more as a single top value.

Salary details

Salary range