H-1B wage filings in Palo Alto, CA
Jobs with a worksite in Palo Alto, California. Filings decided July 2025 to June 2026.
3,641 wage applications for H-1B and similar visas named Palo Alto, CA as the worksite from July 2025 to June 2026, from 461 employers. The median offered wage was $187,663, 9.4% above the government's prevailing wage for those jobs in the area. The most-filed job was Software Engineer (160).
- Filings
- 3,641
- Positions covered
- 5,584
- Employers
- 461
- Median offered
- $187,663
- Median prevailing wage
- $164,403
- Filings since FY2020
- 23,318
- Median offer change since FY2020
- +28%
Offered wage since 2020
The median wage offered for jobs in Palo Alto, CA rose 28%, from $145,725 in fiscal 2020 to $186,466 in fiscal 2026 so far. In fiscal 2026 it was 10.2% above the prevailing wage. Filings peaked in fiscal 2020, with 3,676 filings.
Middle half of offered wagesMedian offered wageMedian prevailing wageFilings per year
Fiscal years run October to September. Fiscal 2026 is still running: these figures cover October 2025 to June 2026.
Palo Alto, CA by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Filings | Median offered | vs year before | Median prevailing | vs prevailing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (Oct to Jun) | 3,005 | $186,466 | +3.6% | $159,890 | +10.2% |
| 2025 | 3,480 | $180,000 | +2.9% | $164,154 | +6.4% |
| 2024 | 3,029 | $175,000 | +4.0% | $158,718 | +7.5% |
| 2023 | 3,071 | $168,241 | +5.2% | $148,658 | +8.8% |
| 2022 | 3,662 | $160,000 | +6.7% | $141,378 | +9.8% |
| 2021 | 3,395 | $150,000 | +2.9% | $132,808 | +9.1% |
| 2020 | 3,676 | $145,725 | n/a | $122,408 | +12.3% |
Employers filing for jobs in Palo Alto
Middle half of offered wagesMedian offered wageMedian prevailing wage
| Employer | Filings | Median offered | Offered range and prevailing wage | vs prevailing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla, Inc. | 879 | $182,000 | +16.8% | |
| Amazon.com Services LLC | 192 | $200,000 | +11.7% | |
| Rivian Automotive, LLC | 122 | $201,681 | +19.3% | |
| Rubrik, Inc. | 115 | $190,000 | +2.1% | |
| JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 106 | $193,200 | +18.8% | |
| Snap Inc. | 105 | $193,550 | at the minimum | |
| Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies, LLC | 80 | $175,000 | +12.7% | |
| Salesforce, Inc. | 67 | $244,167 | +13.9% | |
| Pinterest, Inc. | 67 | $195,354 | at the minimum | |
| The Leland Stanford, Jr University | 64 | $86,940 | +17.0% | |
| VMware LLC | 64 | $217,500 | at the minimum | |
| SAP Labs, LLC | 59 | $169,735 | +14.4% | |
| X.AI Corp. | 47 | $285,000 | +27.8% | |
| Mistral AI, Inc. | 42 | $280,000 | +21.4% | |
| Stanford Health Care | 37 | $150,000 | +35.0% | |
| Varian Medical Systems, Inc. | 36 | $153,012 | +10.2% | |
| Ford Motor Company | 36 | $185,869 | at the minimum | |
| Also, Inc. | 35 | $220,000 | +17.2% | |
| Hippocratic AI, Inc | 34 | $240,000 | +16.0% | |
| Ariba, Inc. | 33 | $166,033 | +11.9% | |
| Tinder LLC | 32 | $187,741 | at the minimum | |
| AppLovin Corporation | 30 | $190,000 | +1.5% | |
| SAP America, Inc. | 28 | $173,153 | +11.4% | |
| Tencent America LLC | 28 | $220,000 | +9.4% | |
| Navan, Inc. | 26 | $200,000 | +6.1% | |
Showing the 25 employers with the most filings of 461. Employers with fewer than 5 filings in total are counted but not named.
Most-filed job titles in Palo Alto
| Job title | Filings | Median offered | Offered range and prevailing wage | vs prevailing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software Engineer | 160 | $163,790 | +3.2% | |
| Member of Technical Staff | 96 | $240,000 | +14.4% | |
| Senior Software Engineer | 92 | $200,000 | +1.2% | |
| Software Dev Engineer II | 68 | $187,741 | +8.7% | |
| R&D Engineer Software | 58 | $187,902 | at the minimum | |
| Senior Developer | 45 | $161,388 | +10.5% | |
| Mechanical Design Engineer | 44 | $147,814 | +13.0% | |
| Applied Scientist II | 43 | $200,500 | +24.5% | |
| Software Development Engineer | 41 | $181,226 | +9.5% | |
| Sourcing Engineer | 37 | $140,588 | +43.0% | |
| AI Scientist | 35 | $285,000 | +29.2% | |
| Autopilot Software Engineer | 32 | $275,000 | +23.1% | |
| Associate | 31 | $260,000 | +27.9% | |
| Software Dev Engineer III | 31 | $231,660 | +11.7% | |
| Software Development Engineer - Eng | 30 | $200,000 | +16.4% | |
| Technical Program Manager | 28 | $181,000 | +17.6% | |
| Vice President, Lead Software Engineer | 27 | $200,000 | +16.7% | |
| Sr Software Development Engineer - Eng | 24 | $190,011 | +10.3% | |
| Software Dev Engineer I | 24 | $148,883 | +5.0% | |
| Autopilot Machine Learning Engineer | 23 | $250,000 | +27.2% | |
| Test Engineer | 23 | $145,600 | +14.3% | |
| Software Engineer II | 22 | $160,500 | at the minimum | |
| Associate, Software Engineer III | 21 | $169,450 | +21.2% | |
| Electronic Design Engineer | 21 | $160,000 | +16.0% | |
| Research Scientist | 21 | $201,100 | at the minimum | |
Seniority of the jobs filed
The government assigns each job one of four wage levels. A higher level means a higher legal minimum.
What these numbers are
- They are wages employers attested to on Labor Condition Applications (Form ETA-9035), not paychecks. Bonuses and stock are not included.
- A filing is not a visa or a hire. One filing can cover several positions, and some are later withdrawn. Wage figures use certified filings only.
- The prevailing wage is the minimum the employer must pay for that job in that area, set from government wage surveys.
- The city is the worksite on the filing, which can be a client's office or a remote worker's home, not the employer's headquarters.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, OFLC disclosure data. How we clean and count it.