National Radio Astronomy Observatory H-1B wage filings

Charlottesville, VA. Filings decided July 2025 to June 2026.

National Radio Astronomy Observatory filed 17 wage applications for H-1B and similar visas from July 2025 to June 2026. The median wage it offered was $90,015, exactly the government's prevailing wage, the legal minimum, for the same jobs. Its most-filed job was Project Director (3 filings, median $110,282).

Filings: 17
Positions covered: 17
Certified: 100.0%
Job titles: 10
Worksite cities: 5
Filings since FY2020: 103
Median offer change since FY2020: +17%

Offered wage since 2020

National Radio Astronomy Observatory's median H-1B wage offer rose 17%, from $74,360 in fiscal 2020 to $86,753 in fiscal 2026 so far. In fiscal 2026 it sat exactly on the prevailing wage. Its busiest full year was fiscal 2025, with 20 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.

National Radio Astronomy Observatory by fiscal year

Fiscal year	Filings	Median offered	vs year before	Median prevailing	vs prevailing
2026 (Oct to Jun)	12	$86,753	+5.1%	$83,491	at the minimum
2025	20	$82,566	−19.0%	$81,099	at the minimum
2024	15	$101,878	+27.1%	$87,360	+0.1%
2023	12	$80,140	+3.2%	$75,171	+4.8%
2022	17	$77,667	−4.7%	$77,667	+3.2%
2021	11	$81,536	+9.7%	$79,851	+0.2%
2020	16	$74,360	n/a	$74,360	at the minimum

Offered wage by job title

Middle half of offered wagesMedian offered wageMedian prevailing wage

Job title	Filings	Median offered	vs prevailing	Median since 2020
Project Director	3	$110,282	at the minimum
Scientist/Computer Science	3	$83,491	at the minimum
Electronics Engineer 2	2	$68,991	+1.3%
Scientist/Astronomy	2	$106,690	+3.9%
Software Engineer IV	2	$108,264	at the minimum
Assistant Scientist/Astronomy	1	$83,491	at the minimum
Associate Scientist/Astronomy	1	$83,491	at the minimum
Engineering Group Lead, Information Systems	1	$107,994	at the minimum
Software Engineer III	1	$81,390	at the minimum	+1% since 2020
Systems Engineer IV	1	$90,979	at the minimum

Where the jobs are

Worksite	Filings	Median offered
Charlottesville, VA	8	$107,994
Socorro, NM	6	$86,753
Albuquerque, NM	1	$90,979
Alpharetta, GA	1	$81,390
Laurel, MD	1	$83,491

By visa type: 17 H-1B. By outcome: 17 certified.

Filings by quarter

Jul to Sep 20255

Oct to Dec 20253

Jan to Mar 20265

Apr to Jun 20264

Across all employers, filings bunch up in the first half of each year around the annual H-1B lottery, so compare a quarter with the same quarter a year earlier, not with the one before it.

Seniority of the jobs filed

Level I, entry0%

Level II, qualified65%

Level III, experienced6%

Level IV, fully competent29%

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 National Radio Astronomy Observatory 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.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, OFLC disclosure data. How we clean and count it.