Does H-1B Salary Include Stock and Bonus? What LCA Wage Data Shows — and What It Leaves Out

Quick answer: No. The salary you see in H-1B LCA data — including every wage on this site — is the base wage the employer committed to on the Labor Condition Application. It does not include RSUs or other equity, annual performance bonuses, sign-on payments, or benefits. That makes LCA data the most reliable public record of guaranteed pay, and also means a tech worker's full offer can sit well above the filed number. Both halves of that sentence matter.

What the LCA wage actually is

Before an employer can file an H-1B petition, it files a Labor Condition Application (Form ETA-9035) with the U.S. Department of Labor. On it, the employer attests to the wage it will pay — and that wage must be at least the higher of the prevailing wage for the occupation and location, or the actual wage paid to similar workers at the company. The four prevailing-wage levels behind that floor are explained in our wage-levels guide.

The number that enters the public disclosure files is that committed base rate. It is a legal floor with real enforcement behind it, which is what makes it worth publishing: nobody self-reports it, and no one is rounding up to impress anyone.

What it leaves out

Only guaranteed wages count toward the required wage, so the filing generally excludes everything conditional: equity grants whose value depends on vesting and the stock price, discretionary performance bonuses, one-time sign-on payments, and benefits. For a large share of employers that distinction barely matters — base is most of the offer. For big-tech compensation packages, it matters a lot.

The chart above is an illustration, not data: a senior software offer at a large tech employer might pair a $180,000 base with six figures of annual RSU value, a target bonus, and a first-year sign-on, landing total compensation around twice the base. None of those extra components appear anywhere in DOL disclosure files, and their real value moves with the stock market. Base is the only piece that is filed, fixed, and verifiable.

How to read our numbers correctly

Treat every wage on this site as a floor, not the offer. Three practical rules:

• Compare like with like. Every employer files the same metric — guaranteed base — so ranking companies, roles, or cities by LCA wage is an apples-to-apples comparison. Browse Amazon's profile and any other sponsor and you are comparing the same legal quantity.
• Expect self-reported totals to be higher. Sites built on user-submitted offers show base plus equity plus bonus. When our median for a role looks lower than a self-reported total-comp figure, that is the definition difference at work, not an error in either number.
• Mind the sector. In consulting, staffing, healthcare, and most non-tech employers, pay is close to base-only, so the LCA number is close to the whole story. In big tech, read it as the guaranteed floor beneath a larger, variable package.

FAQ

Does the H-1B salary in LCA data include bonuses?

Generally no. Only guaranteed wages count toward the required wage on the LCA, so discretionary or performance-dependent bonuses stay out of the filed number. A bonus that is guaranteed and paid regularly can count toward meeting the required wage, but the typical tech target bonus is not filed as part of the disclosed base rate.

Do RSUs or stock options count toward the H-1B required wage?

No. Equity value depends on vesting and the share price, so it is not a guaranteed wage and does not satisfy the prevailing-wage requirement. That is exactly why it never shows up in LCA disclosure data.

Why do salaries here look lower than on self-reported total-comp sites?

Different metric, not a contradiction. This site shows the guaranteed base wage from official DOL filings; self-reported sites show base plus equity plus bonus for the subset of people who choose to post. For senior big-tech roles the gap between those two definitions can be large.

Is the LCA wage what the worker is actually paid?

It is the minimum the employer legally committed to pay for that role and location — the employer must pay at least the higher of the prevailing wage and its own actual wage for similar employees. Real paychecks can be higher; they cannot lawfully be lower while the LCA terms apply.

Does VisaSalaries adjust wages upward to estimate total compensation?

No, deliberately. We publish the base wage exactly as filed with DOL, because it is the only compensation number that is verified, universal across employers, and free of self-selection. Estimating equity would mean publishing guesses; we would rather label the floor honestly.

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