XaploreH-1B Software Engineer Salaries by City and Employer (FY2025–2026 LCA Data)
In short: Across 48,199 certified full-time H-1B filings with the exact job title "Software Engineer" (U.S. Department of Labor LCA data, October 2024 to June 2026), the median offered base wage was $144,000. Where the job is matters a lot: the median was $188,000 in Mountain View and $200,000 in Menlo Park, but $106,000 in Irving and Plano, Texas. Who files matters just as much: Meta's median was $209,993 and Google's $186,000, while several large IT-services firms filed medians near $100,000 to $126,000. These are base wages only, with no bonus or stock.
Every H-1B petition starts with a Labor Condition Application (LCA), on which the employer states the job title, worksite and the wage it will pay. The Department of Labor publishes certified LCAs every quarter. We load those files into our free H-1B Salary Lookup; all numbers below come from it (data as of 2026-10-18, covering fiscal year 2025 and FY2026 quarters 1–3). If you want to test how well you know these numbers, try the 1-minute daily game H-1B Salary Guess.
What is counted
- Certified, full-time H-1B LCAs only. Withdrawn and denied applications, part-time jobs, and H-1B1 and E-3 filings are left out.
- Exact title "Software Engineer". "Senior Software Engineer", "Software Engineer II" or "SDE" are separate titles and are not in these medians. This keeps the comparison like-for-like, but it also means senior roles are mostly excluded.
- The wage is the offered annual base wage (the lower end when a range was filed). Hourly wages are annualized. Bonuses, RSUs and sign-on pay are not on the LCA.
- One LCA is not one person. An employer can file an LCA and never hire anyone on it, and one LCA can cover more than one position.
Median by worksite city
The 15 cities with the most "Software Engineer" filings:
| City | Filings | Median base wage |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain View, CA | 4,039 | $188,000 |
| Sunnyvale, CA | 3,505 | $187,762 |
| New York, NY | 2,868 | $184,188 |
| Menlo Park, CA | 2,787 | $200,000 |
| San Francisco, CA | 1,717 | $184,300 |
| Bellevue, WA | 1,632 | $184,000 |
| Seattle, WA | 1,623 | $172,000 |
| San Jose, CA | 1,126 | $170,838 |
| Santa Clara, CA | 976 | $173,329 |
| Irving, TX | 952 | $106,000 |
| Austin, TX | 936 | $114,754 |
| Kirkland, WA | 889 | $170,000 |
| Plano, TX | 802 | $106,000 |
| Charlotte, NC | 729 | $112,986 |
| Phoenix, AZ | 537 | $106,000 |
A city median mixes many employers. Mountain View and Menlo Park are dominated by Google and Meta filings, which pulls them up; Irving, Plano and Phoenix have many filings from IT-services and consulting firms, which pulls them down. So a city median is not "what software engineers earn in that city" so much as "what the employers who sponsor there file". To compare one employer across cities, open its page on the H-1B Salary Lookup.
Median by employer
Selected employers among the top filers of the same title:
| Employer | Filings | Median base wage |
|---|---|---|
| 9,686 | $186,000 | |
| Meta Platforms | 5,555 | $209,993 |
| Mphasis | 1,153 | $121,200 |
| Intel | 875 | $139,540 |
| NVIDIA | 726 | $189,592 |
| DoorDash | 449 | $172,931 |
| Cisco Systems | 367 | $139,249 |
| U.S. Bank | 323 | $120,649 |
| Netflix | 306 | $226,158 |
| Waymo | 305 | $205,000 |
| Uber Technologies | 277 | $183,000 |
| Snowflake | 268 | $160,000 |
| Databricks | 261 | $142,200 |
The same title means different things at different companies. At some, "Software Engineer" is the entry or mid level and senior people carry another title; at others it covers several levels. For a fair comparison, look at the same title, same city and similar wage level (I to IV) at each employer you are considering.
FY2025 vs FY2026
For the same exact title, the median was $138,023 across 27,826 FY2025 filings (October 2024 to September 2025) and $151,000 across 20,373 FY2026 filings so far (October 2025 to June 2026). Part of that change can come from who filed in each period, not only from raises, so treat it as a signal rather than a pay-growth rate.
Data scientists, for comparison
The exact title "Data Scientist" had 5,580 filings with a median of $120,000. By city: New York $164,403 (463 filings), Menlo Park $193,679 (246), Mountain View $191,000 (180), San Francisco $165,800 (177), Austin $127,700 (133), Seattle $144,338 (118) and Plano $96,034 (103).
How to use these numbers
- Check an offer's base against filings for the same employer, title and city. If the offer is far below the employer's own filings, ask why.
- Remember the base is only part of pay. At many large tech employers stock and bonus add a lot; our guide to comparing tech job offers covers that.
- Read the wage level. Our guide to reading H-1B salary data explains levels I to IV and why an LCA is not your salary.
FAQ
What is the median H-1B software engineer salary?
For certified full-time H-1B LCAs with the exact title "Software Engineer" from October 2024 to June 2026, the median offered base wage was $144,000 (48,199 filings). The middle half ranged from $108,826 to $186,000.
Does the LCA wage include RSUs or bonus?
No. The LCA lists the base wage the employer will pay. Stock, bonuses and sign-on payments are not part of it.
Why are Texas medians so much lower?
Partly local wage levels and partly employer mix: many Texas "Software Engineer" filings come from IT-services and consulting firms, which file lower wages than the large product companies that dominate Bay Area filings.
Where can I look up a specific company?
Search any employer, title or city on our free H-1B Salary Lookup. It shows medians, wage levels and green-card (PERM) filings.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Labor, OFLC: LCA disclosure data (FY2025 Q1–Q4, FY2026 Q1–Q3)
- Xaplore H-1B Salary Lookup (data as of 2026-10-18)
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