H-1B wage filings in Santa Barbara, CA
Jobs with a worksite in Santa Barbara, California. Filings decided July 2025 to June 2026.
183 wage applications for H-1B and similar visas named Santa Barbara, CA as the worksite from July 2025 to June 2026, from 51 employers. The median offered wage was $95,847, 0.7% above the government's prevailing wage for those jobs in the area. The most-filed job was Postdoctoral Scholar (45).
- Filings
- 183
- Positions covered
- 220
- Employers
- 51
- Median offered
- $95,847
- Median prevailing wage
- $82,900
- Filings since FY2020
- 1,191
- Median offer change since FY2020
- +12%
Offered wage since 2020
The median wage offered for jobs in Santa Barbara, CA rose 12%, from $86,191 in fiscal 2020 to $96,300 in fiscal 2026 so far. In fiscal 2026 it sat exactly on the prevailing wage. Filings peaked in fiscal 2022, with 204 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.
Santa Barbara, CA by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Filings | Median offered | vs year before | Median prevailing | vs prevailing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (Oct to Jun) | 145 | $96,300 | −7.6% | $85,200 | at the minimum |
| 2025 | 171 | $104,239 | +12.3% | $82,692 | +10.9% |
| 2024 | 141 | $92,800 | +7.2% | $77,400 | +7.7% |
| 2023 | 162 | $86,528 | +1.8% | $80,596 | +3.5% |
| 2022 | 204 | $85,000 | +7.2% | $72,700 | +3.1% |
| 2021 | 184 | $79,305 | −8.0% | $72,384 | +1.3% |
| 2020 | 184 | $86,191 | n/a | $66,397 | +7.9% |
Employers filing for jobs in Santa Barbara
Middle half of offered wagesMedian offered wageMedian prevailing wage
Showing the 25 employers with the most filings of 51. Employers with fewer than 5 filings in total are counted but not named.
Most-filed job titles in Santa Barbara
| Job title | Filings | Median offered | Offered range and prevailing wage | vs prevailing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Postdoctoral Scholar | 45 | $74,281 | at the minimum | |
| Assistant Professor | 17 | $122,600 | +27.1% | |
| Project Scientist | 9 | $85,200 | at the minimum | |
| Lecturer | 7 | $75,301 | at the minimum | |
| Architectural Designer | 5 | $81,120 | +8.7% | |
| Software Engineer | 5 | $104,312 | at the minimum | |
| Associate Specialist | 4 | $82,285 | at the minimum | |
| Professor | 4 | $174,050 | +57.1% | |
| Data Engineer I | 3 | $111,440 | +61.8% | |
| Full Stack Engineer | 3 | $125,000 | +17.2% | |
| Occupational Therapist | 3 | $133,120 | +3.7% | |
| Specialist | 3 | $103,688 | at the minimum | |
| Applications Programmer | 2 | $98,796 | +22.3% | |
| Assistant Project Scientist | 2 | $83,600 | at the minimum | |
| Business Intelligence Engineer II | 2 | $106,652 | +11.7% | |
| Research Scientist | 2 | $194,000 | +69.1% | |
| Senior Account Manager | 2 | $89,999 | +1.0% | |
| Software Development Engineer | 2 | $211,500 | +52.2% | |
| Staff Research Associate | 2 | $90,231 | at the minimum | |
| Academic Coordinator | 1 | $70,000 | +4.1% | |
| Accountant | 1 | $115,232 | +47.0% | |
| Accountant I | 1 | $77,314 | +28.9% | |
| Accounting Supervisor | 1 | $100,000 | +27.6% | |
| Architecture Designer | 1 | $140,000 | +21.0% | |
| Assistant General Manager | 1 | $275,000 | +61.0% | |
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.