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Protip for salary seekers: H1-B filings are public

flcdatacenter.com

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Re: Protip for salary seekers: H1-B filings are public

#2

Post by lawnchair_larry »

Since this is a hot topic lately, I thought I'd share my goto site for wage negotiation. Note that this includes the company, date of approval, the exact salary (in most cases - sometimes they get ranges/maximums approved), and job title.

It only applies to foreign workers in the US on a visa, but it is probably the best data source you are going to find.

Re: Protip for salary seekers: H1-B filings are public

#4

Post by georgecmu »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #2

Since this is a hot topic lately, I thought I'd share my goto site for wage negotiation. Note that this includes the company, date of approval, the exact salary (in most cases - sometimes they get ranges/maximums approved), and job title. It only applies to foreign workers in the US on a visa, but it is probably the best data source you are going to find.

Take the H1-B salary and increase that by 30%-50% to get what you should be shooting for.

I remember when my university applied for H1-B on my behalf back in 2001, their prevailing wage for software engineers was <$30K/annum.

Re: Protip for salary seekers: H1-B filings are public

#5

Post by timr »

Addendum for new grads interviewing at Microsoft: when you go to the welcome center on the morning of your interview, the H1-B filings for all recently hired foreign employees are posted near the candidate waiting area. These have salaries.

These are especially helpful for answering that eternal first HR question about salary expectations. The best answer is to dodge the question entirely, but if you're not good at negotiating with skilled recruiters (and if you're a new CS grad, you probably aren't) pick a number that's somewhere in the middle of the posted H1-B range.

Re: Protip for salary seekers: H1-B filings are public

#6

Post by azm »

georgecmu wrote: post #4
lawnchair_larry wrote: post #2

Since this is a hot topic lately, I thought I'd share my goto site for wage negotiation. Note that this includes the company, date of approval, the exact salary (in most cases - sometimes they get ranges/maximums approved), and job title. It only applies to foreign workers in the US on a visa, but it is probably the best data source you are going to find.

Take the H1-B salary and increase that by 30%-50% to get what you should be shooting for. I remember when my university applied for H1-B on my behalf back in 2001, their prevailing wage for software engineers was <$30K/annum.

That is primarily because the prevailing wage is calculated by agencies like erieri and Cal EDD (in the case of California) surveys which are usually nine months to a year old. So ymmv. If the survey was taken during a boom year and is used in a bust year, the prevailing wages are usually higher than market. The reverse is also true. There is also a selection bias in the data as they only have data from organizations which are willing to share this. There is no mandated requirement for this.

Another thing to keep in mind is that (in theory) prevailing wage data reflects market wages (i.e. all types of engineers) not just those on a visa. Whether or not this is actually what happens is something I have not idea about.

So in theory the LCA data should be a good datum to start your salary negotiations on. However it should be tempered by current market conditions, location and most importantly your own position in the negotiations. Its always easier to negotiate from a position of strength. When you are looking to provide for your family, insurance, rent/mortgage etc and are unemployed, negotiating may or may not work depending on how desperate you are.

Re: Protip for salary seekers: H1-B filings are public

#7

Post by lawnchair_larry »

georgecmu wrote: post #4
lawnchair_larry wrote: post #2

Since this is a hot topic lately, I thought I'd share my goto site for wage negotiation. Note that this includes the company, date of approval, the exact salary (in most cases - sometimes they get ranges/maximums approved), and job title. It only applies to foreign workers in the US on a visa, but it is probably the best data source you are going to find.

Take the H1-B salary and increase that by 30%-50% to get what you should be shooting for. I remember when my university applied for H1-B on my behalf back in 2001, their prevailing wage for software engineers was <$30K/annum.

No, this has nothing to do with the prevailing wage. You'll notice that each row indicates the "prevailing wage", as well as the wage that the company is actually asking to pay someone.

The prevailing wage is always way lower (and a joke, basically), satisfying their obligation to pay greater than or equal to, but that is not the interesting part of this data.

To be clear - this isn't a link to the LCA data (although each application includes it). This is actual individual salaries that were approved to a worker.

Re: Protip for salary seekers: H1-B filings are public

#8

Post by makmanalp »

As a sidenote, it's pretty useful sometimes to check if an employer does hire H1-B (like if you're doing your OPT and curious about what lies in the future) especially with smaller companies, so you can check here:

http://www.immihelp.com/h1b-sponsoring-companies-database/

This also includes salaries.

Re: Protip for salary seekers: H1-B filings are public

#10

Post by Muchi »

I wish they didn't disclose both the company name and the title since some companies create a title just for one person. It takes no effort to figure out who's making what, myself included -_-

Open data / Gov 2.0 and that whole spiel is great but it'd be nice if privacy was given a second thought, even if it's the data of non-citizens

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