Research Scientist H-1B wages

Filings decided July 2025 to June 2026. Most are classified as Computer and Information Research Scientists (SOC 15-1221).

Employers filed 2,371 wage applications for Research Scientist jobs from July 2025 to June 2026, across 352 employers. The median offered wage was $163,202, 20.4% above the government's prevailing wage for the job. Meta Platforms, Inc filed the most (650, median $207,502).

Filings: 2,371
Positions covered: 4,796
Employers: 352
Median offered: $163,202
Median prevailing wage: $114,712
Filings since FY2020: 11,092
Median offer change since FY2020: +78%

Research Scientist, all employers2,371 filings, July 2025 to June 2026

$163,202Median wage employers told the government they would pay

$80,000 to $205,000Where the middle half of the filings fall

$114,712Prevailing wage: the legal minimum for these jobs

Offered wage since 2020

The median wage offered for Research Scientist jobs rose 78%, from $100,000 in fiscal 2020 to $178,006 in fiscal 2026 so far. In fiscal 2026 it was 22.3% above the prevailing wage. Filings peaked in fiscal 2025, with 2,004 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.

Research Scientist by fiscal year

Fiscal year	Filings	Median offered	vs year before	Median prevailing	vs prevailing
2026 (Oct to Jun)	2,013	$178,006	+31.9%	$130,897	+22.3%
2025	2,004	$135,000	+17.4%	$113,693	+13.2%
2024	1,758	$114,957	+9.5%	$94,349	+15.3%
2023	1,570	$105,000	no change	$87,859	+15.2%
2022	1,471	$105,000	+8.2%	$86,248	+13.9%
2021	1,155	$97,000	−3.0%	$86,445	+12.5%
2020	1,121	$100,000	n/a	$85,238	+12.6%

Employers that file for this title

Middle half of offered wagesMedian offered wageMedian prevailing wage

Employer	Filings	Median offered	vs prevailing
Meta Platforms, Inc	650	$207,502	+33.8%
Google LLC	207	$205,000	+35.3%
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	91	$82,844	+24.9%
NVIDIA Corporation	86	$168,000	at the minimum
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center	44	$77,000	+38.7%
UT Southwestern Medical Center	42	$70,179	+29.5%
The University of Virginia	42	$68,404	+17.2%
Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC	35	$180,293	+21.8%
Intel Corporation	34	$156,640	+2.2%
The Ohio State University	29	$84,864	+26.6%
ByteDance Inc.	27	$340,000	+134.9%
Trustees of Boston University	24	$80,000	+19.3%
NYU Grossman School of Medicine	23	$92,290	+20.7%
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University	23	$80,000	+16.2%
Van Andel Research Institute	22	$77,737	+19.5%
University of Illinois	21	$72,010	+4.4%
Research Foundation for the State University of New York	21	$74,235	+12.1%
Cleveland Clinic Foundation	19	$72,000	+26.9%
University of Pittsburgh	18	$67,050	+15.7%
General Hospital Corporation	17	$74,403	at the minimum
Brigham and Women's Hospital	17	$80,000	+6.5%
Purdue University	17	$76,440	+6.2%
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston	16	$67,912	+23.0%
The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital	15	$80,000	+6.2%
IBM Corporation	15	$203,910	+35.9%

Showing the 25 employers with the most filings of 352. Employers with fewer than 5 filings in total are counted but not named.

Where Research Scientist jobs are filed

Worksite	Filings	Median offered	vs prevailing
Menlo Park, CA	317	$188,197	+38.8%
New York, NY	234	$190,883	+25.9%
Mountain View, CA	137	$222,000	+24.7%
Cambridge, MA	130	$91,520	+19.2%
Sunnyvale, CA	87	$217,528	+14.9%
Houston, TX	74	$76,450	+37.4%
Bellevue, WA	72	$211,778	+19.0%
Boston, MA	71	$80,000	+12.0%
Santa Clara, CA	64	$168,000	at the minimum
San Francisco, CA	46	$209,082	+39.9%
Seattle, WA	46	$191,000	+12.7%
Columbus, OH	43	$80,000	+10.5%
Dallas, TX	43	$70,160	+29.5%
Charlottesville, VA	42	$68,404	+17.2%
San Jose, CA	38	$254,510	+65.4%
Pittsburgh, PA	32	$75,063	+21.8%
Livermore, CA	31	$181,036	+20.4%
Redmond, WA	30	$210,827	+3.3%
Austin, TX	24	$135,056	+25.6%
Cleveland, OH	24	$71,869	+26.8%
Los Angeles, CA	24	$118,521	+4.9%
Grand Rapids, MI	22	$77,737	+19.5%
Buffalo, NY	21	$70,000	+4.4%
Palo Alto, CA	21	$201,100	at the minimum
West Lafayette, IN	19	$80,000	+6.2%

Seniority of the jobs filed

Level I, entry27%

Level II, qualified46%

Level III, experienced17%

Level IV, fully competent11%

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.
56 filings are for part-time work. Hourly wages are shown as full-time equivalents (2,080 hours a year).

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