Same Job, Different Paycheck: H-1B Software Developer Salaries by City (2026)

Quick answer: Across FY2021–FY2026 LCA filings, the median H-1B salary for Software Developers (SOC 15-1252) ranges from $107,700 in Irving, TX to $191,700 in San Francisco, CA — the same occupation pays about 78% more at the top of the list, an $84,000 gap. City choice also moves your official wage level: a $140,000 offer classifies as Level III in the Dallas and Austin wage areas, Level II in New York, Level I in Seattle and San Francisco — and falls below the local Level I floor entirely in San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View. Under the FY2027 weighted H-1B lottery, that's the difference between 3 entries and 1.

The 2026 picture: ten cities, one job title

Software Developers (SOC 15-1252) is the largest H-1B occupation in the Department of Labor's disclosure data, with 597,670 LCA filings nationwide since FY2021 and a national median wage of $133,300. Here is what the ten cities with the most filings actually pay:

City	LCA filings	Median wage	P25	P75
San Francisco, CA	13,782	$191,700	$166,000	$220,600
Sunnyvale, CA	14,740	$186,000	$167,100	$213,800
Mountain View, CA	12,625	$186,000	$168,000	$213,500
San Jose, CA	11,961	$185,000	$157,300	$213,700
New York, NY	20,970	$167,000	$135,000	$195,000
Redmond, WA	15,952	$165,266	$147,500	$186,100
Seattle, WA	22,186	$160,506	$134,700	$185,400
Austin, TX	14,954	$133,000	$108,800	$160,100
Plano, TX	13,692	$112,999	$101,200	$140,100
Irving, TX	15,621	$107,700	$99,000	$131,400

LCA filing-level counts, not distinct individuals or hires. Cities are worksite cities, so suburbs appear separately from their metro cores (Redmond next to Seattle, Sunnyvale next to San Jose). P25/P75 rounded to the nearest $100.

Two patterns stand out. First, the Bay Area cells cluster tightly: Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and San Jose all sit between $185,000 and $186,000, just under San Francisco. Second, the Texas trio — Austin, Plano, Irving — anchors the bottom of the table, with Irving's median a full $84,000 below San Francisco's.

Same dollars, different wage level

Pay isn't the only thing that changes with geography. The Department of Labor sets official prevailing-wage levels — Level I (entry) through Level IV (expert) — separately for each wage area, and those floors vary enormously. The ten cities above map to six wage areas:

Wage area (top-10 cities in it)	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV	Where $140,000 lands	FY2027 entries
San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara (San Jose, Sunnyvale, Mountain View)	$149,365	$187,741	$226,138	$264,514	Below Level I floor†	1
San Francisco area (San Francisco)	$135,699	$161,637	$187,574	$213,512	Level I	1
Seattle area (Seattle, Redmond)	$117,749	$149,240	$180,710	$212,202	Level I	1
New York area (New York)	$103,210	$131,997	$160,805	$189,592	Level II	2
Dallas area (Irving, Plano)	$90,896	$112,923	$134,971	$156,998	Level III	3
Austin area (Austin)	$90,355	$114,754	$139,152	$163,550	Level III	3

Official DOL OFLC prevailing wage levels for SOC 15-1252, 2025–26 wage year (BLS May 2024 OEWS), annual figures rounded to the nearest dollar. DOL has proposed raising the Level I–IV thresholds (rulemaking pending, 2026); the floors shown reflect current levels. †$140,000 is below this area's Level I floor. For FY2027 lottery weighting a below-floor wage still counts as Level I (one entry), but an employer generally cannot certify an LCA below the prevailing wage for the position — so real filings at this wage are unlikely here.

Read that table again with one number in mind: $140,000 — a figure close to the national median for this occupation. In Irving, Austin, or Plano, $140,000 clears the Level III floor: the government classifies it as a senior-level wage. In New York it's Level II. In Seattle or San Francisco it's Level I, the entry tier. And in the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara area it doesn't even reach the Level I floor of $149,365. The identical paycheck reads as three different experience levels depending on the worksite address. It cuts the other way too: a $200,000 offer in San Jose — comfortably above that area's Level II floor of $187,741 but short of Level III — is officially a Level II wage.

And different lottery entries

Wage levels stopped being paperwork trivia in February 2026. Under the FY2027 weighted H-1B selection, a cap-subject registration earns pool entries equal to its OEWS wage level: Level I gets 1 entry, Level IV gets 4. We covered the mechanics in How the FY2027 weighted H-1B selection works; the short version for this article is in the table above — the same $140,000 offer earns 3 entries in the Dallas and Austin areas and 1 entry on the West Coast. More entries mean proportionally more chances, but this is entry weighting only, not a selection probability: actual odds depend on the national pool, which is unknown until the draw runs.

Rules as of June 11, 2026; effective for FY2027 (DHS weighted selection, eff. Feb 27, 2026); subject to ongoing litigation.

Who pays above the local floor

A high floor doesn't tell you whether employers merely meet it or beat it. Comparing each filing's wage with its own prevailing wage (the median of per-filing premiums):

New York leads at 20.1% above prevailing, with San Francisco (15.8%), Seattle (15.7%), Redmond (15.4%) and Austin (14.9%) close behind. The Bay Area's percentages look smaller — San Jose 8.1%, Sunnyvale 9.8%, Mountain View 7.7% — partly because the floors there are so high to begin with. At the other end, Irving (1.1%) and Plano (2.3%) barely clear the floor, and they also post the highest share of filings offering exactly the DOL prevailing wage: 24.4% and 24.9% respectively, versus 4% to 6% in most Bay Area cells.

Premiums are the median of per-filing premiums over the DOL prevailing wage; shares are filings offering exactly the prevailing wage. LCA filing-level counts, not distinct individuals or hires.

What this means for your offer

Every city in this article links to its live data page, where you can type your own offer and see the estimated percentile, the wage level, and the FY2027 entry weighting it would earn there — for example, see the $140,000 example on the San Jose page. If you're comparing offers across cities, the wage level lookup tool classifies any wage against any area's official floors.

Methodology & caveats

Figures aggregate U.S. Department of Labor OFLC LCA disclosure filings for SOC 15-1252, FY2021 through the FY2026 Q2 release (data through about March 31, 2026). About 5.8% of raw rows are excluded as suspicious (implausible wages or units). Counts are LCA filing-level counts, not distinct individuals or hires. Cities were selected as the ten worksite cities with the most filings for this occupation; medians and percentiles match the corresponding city pages on this site. Prevailing-wage floors are the official DOL OFLC levels for the 2025–26 wage year (BLS May 2024 OEWS). Sources and definitions: About.

FAQ

Why does the same job pay so differently by city? Local labor markets differ, and so do the legal floors: the DOL prevailing wage for an entry-level Software Developer is $90,355 in the Austin area but $149,365 in the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara area — a 65% higher starting line before any negotiation happens.

Does a higher salary always mean a higher wage level? No. Levels are relative to the local floor. $140,000 is Level III in Irving but below the Level I floor in San Jose, and even $200,000 in San Jose is only Level II.

Do these figures include every H-1B worker? They cover LCA filings disclosed by the DOL for FY2021–FY2026 — filing-level counts, not distinct individuals or hires — with about 5.8% of rows excluded as suspicious.

Which city gives the most lottery entries for the same offer? Under FY2027 weighting, the same $140,000 offer earns 3 entries in the Dallas and Austin areas versus 1 in Seattle, San Francisco, or the San Jose area. That's entry weighting, not a selection probability — actual odds depend on the national pool. Try your own numbers in the lottery odds estimator.