The 25 Highest-Paying H-1B Employers — 2026 Ranking
We ranked the highest-paying H-1B sponsors by median disclosed salary, among employers with 1,000+ filings. Airbnb, NVIDIA and TikTok lead — and the biggest sponsor by volume isn't even close.
Across the roughly 6,800 employers that have filed at least 50 H-1B applications, the median company pays a median wage of about $103,000. The 25 employers below pay close to double that — and the contrast with the industry's highest-volume sponsors is the most revealing part of the data.
To keep this an apples-to-apples list of real, sizable sponsors, we ranked only employers with 1,000 or more H-1B filings, by the median base salary they disclosed to the U.S. Department of Labor. (That filing-count floor matters — it's why you won't see tiny specialty practices with a handful of filings inflating the top.)
The Top 25
| # | Employer | Median H-1B salary | H-1B filings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Airbnb | $210,000 | 1,166 |
| 2 | NVIDIA | $203,609 | 4,188 |
| 3 | TikTok | $200,000 | 7,611 |
| 4 | DoorDash | $198,235 | 2,666 |
| 5 | DocuSign | $197,671 | 1,412 |
| 6 | Netflix | $196,934 | 1,555 |
| 7 | $193,744 | 2,841 | |
| 8 | Robinhood | $193,000 | 1,023 |
| 9 | Boston Consulting Group | $192,800 | 1,949 |
| 10 | Meta | $192,500 | 31,913 |
| 11 | Block | $191,500 | 1,177 |
| 12 | Spotify | $190,000 | 1,006 |
| 13 | Snowflake | $189,157 | 1,204 |
| 14 | McKinsey & Company | $185,300 | 3,195 |
| 15 | Waymo | $185,000 | 1,460 |
| 16 | Apple | $185,000 | 22,566 |
| 17 | Palo Alto Networks | $184,080 | 2,498 |
| 18 | Zoox | $179,500 | 1,158 |
| 19 | Stripe | $178,286 | 1,017 |
| 20 | Intuit | $177,863 | 3,647 |
| 21 | Databricks | $177,800 | 1,363 |
| 22 | Uber | $177,000 | 4,686 |
| 23 | Workday | $175,719 | 1,625 |
| 24 | Bank of America (BofA Securities) | $175,000 | 1,220 |
| 25 | X (formerly Twitter) | $175,000 | 1,130 |
Median base salary disclosed to the U.S. Department of Labor; employers with 1,000+ H-1B filings (FY2020–FY2026).
What the list actually tells you
Product tech sets the ceiling. The top of the list is consumer and infrastructure software — Airbnb, NVIDIA, TikTok, DoorDash — with a band of fintech and enterprise names (Robinhood, Block, Snowflake, Stripe, Databricks) close behind. The only non-tech entrants are the elite consultancies and a bank: BCG, McKinsey, and BofA Securities.
Scale and pay aren't a trade-off. It would be easy to assume the biggest sponsors pay less. They don't have to: Meta sponsored 31,913 filings and still posts a $192,500 median, and Apple backs a $185,000 median across 22,566 filings. Paying well at the top of the market and sponsoring at scale clearly coexist.
And here's the twist — the biggest sponsor by volume isn't on this list at all. The single most prolific H-1B filer, Cognizant, submitted 65,906 filings at a median of about $99,000 — below the overall sponsor median of $103,000. The other high-volume IT-services firms cluster in the same range: Infosys (about $96k), Wipro (about $86k), Tech Mahindra (about $95k). In other words, volume and pay are different stories. The companies that file the most H-1Bs are largely not the ones paying the most for them.
How to read these numbers
A few honest caveats, because the framing matters:
- These are base salaries, not total compensation. H-1B disclosures report base wage only. At companies like NVIDIA, Meta or Airbnb, equity and bonuses can add a large multiple on top — so the real pay gap between these firms and the median is likely wider than the table shows.
- We use the median, not the average. Medians resist distortion from a handful of executive-level filings, so they better reflect a typical role.
- Some firms file under several legal entities. A few well-known high payers (Citadel, for instance) split their filings across multiple legal names, which keeps any single entity below our 1,000-filing floor. We left those out rather than double-count or merge medians that aren't comparable.
- This is disclosed intent, not a guarantee. An LCA filing reflects the wage an employer attested to; it isn't proof the visa was approved or the person was hired.
Look up any employer
Want to see where a specific company — or your own offer — lands?
- Search all H-1B filings by employer, job title, or city to benchmark a number against what a company actually pays.
- Open any company profile to see its median, salary range, top job titles, and how its wages compare to the DOL prevailing wage.
- Curious how pay now affects your odds in the cap lottery? See our explainer on the new weighted H-1B selection rule.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor OFLC H-1B Labor Condition Application disclosure data, FY2020–FY2026. Figures are the median of disclosed annual base wages per employer, limited to employers with 1,000 or more filings. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice.