Data release · October 6, 2026
In the first wage-weighted H-1B season, top-level wage filings more than doubled.
Before filing an H-1B petition, an employer must have the wage certified by the Department of Labor. In April–June 2026 — when employers filed petitions for the first cap lottery weighted by wage level — certified filings for new hires at the top wage level rose from 7,510 to 15,809. Entry-level filings fell from 46,199 to 29,907, and the median wage on these filings rose from $95,493 to $115,000.
- Level IV filings
- +111%
- 7,510 → 15,809
- Level I filings
- −35%
- 46,199 → 29,907
- Median wage
- +20%
- $95,493 → $115,000
- All new-hire filings
- −7%
- 120,932 → 112,764
April–June 2025 against April–June 2026. Certified H-1B labor condition applications with at least one new-employment position.
The filings, by wage level
April–June of each year. Shares are of filings that list a wage level.
| Wage level | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Change | Share 2025 | Share 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level I · entry | 36,408 | 46,199 | 29,907 | −35% | 40.6% | 29.2% |
| Level II · qualified | 50,242 | 47,414 | 39,618 | −16% | 41.6% | 38.6% |
| Level III · experienced | 11,724 | 12,726 | 17,189 | +35% | 11.2% | 16.8% |
| Level IV · fully competent | 5,778 | 7,510 | 15,809 | +111% | 6.6% | 15.4% |
| No level listed | 5,908 | 7,083 | 10,241 | +45% | — | — |
| All filings | 110,060 | 120,932 | 112,764 | −7% | ||
| Median annual wage | $90,979 | $95,493 | $115,000 | +20% | ||
By state
The ten states with the most new-hire filings in April–June 2026, by worksite. 2025 → 2026. Level IV rose and Level I fell in every one.
| State | Filings | Level I | Level IV | Median wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 19,964 → 22,044 | 6,943 → 4,881 | 1,566 → 3,146 | $130,000 → $156,296 |
| Texas | 18,527 → 15,123 | 6,661 → 3,413 | 938 → 1,990 | $87,200 → $107,000 |
| New York | 11,974 → 12,472 | 5,053 → 3,818 | 890 → 2,115 | $102,000 → $132,000 |
| Washington | 6,053 → 9,033 | 2,430 → 2,310 | 369 → 982 | $129,000 → $156,000 |
| Illinois | 6,197 → 5,182 | 2,558 → 1,871 | 320 → 650 | $87,568 → $96,720 |
| New Jersey | 6,549 → 4,423 | 2,795 → 1,264 | 245 → 466 | $95,493 → $105,000 |
| Massachusetts | 4,617 → 4,146 | 1,869 → 1,208 | 318 → 547 | $101,000 → $115,627 |
| Florida | 4,599 → 3,837 | 1,679 → 991 | 389 → 760 | $84,100 → $97,282 |
| Georgia | 4,514 → 3,369 | 1,610 → 818 | 254 → 513 | $88,317 → $99,562 |
| North Carolina | 3,378 → 2,837 | 1,113 → 655 | 206 → 414 | $92,370 → $105,747 |
What changed this year
For the fiscal 2027 cap, USCIS entered each registration in the lottery once per wage level — four entries at Level IV, one at Level I — under a DHS rule effective February 27, 2026. Employers whose registrations were picked in March filed petitions from April 1 to June 30, each after certifying the wage on a labor condition application. In 2024 and 2025, selection was random.
Two other changes overlapped these months. A $100,000 payment requirement for certain new H-1B petitions took effect on September 21, 2025, by presidential proclamation; a federal court in Massachusetts vacated it on June 8, 2026, and the government is appealing. And on March 27, 2026, the Department of Labor proposed raising the wage levels themselves. That rule is not final; the levels in this release are the ones in force.
A check: filings the lottery never touches
Filings that only extend an existing H-1B never pass through the lottery. In the same months they show no such shift: Level IV went from 7,706 to 7,973 (+3%), and Level I from 5,329 to 6,067 (+14%). The shift is in filings for new hires, not in how wage levels are recorded.
What the filings show — and what they don’t
- These are labor condition applications, not petitions or hires. Certification is permission to file, and one filing can cover more than one position.
- Filings for new hires include cap-exempt employers — universities and research nonprofits — whose hires never enter the lottery. The disclosure data does not mark which filings are cap-subject.
- The wage level is the one the employer listed. Filings that set the prevailing wage from a survey or a union contract list no level; they count in the totals and are left out of the shares.
- The records show what changed in the filings. They do not show why.
Volume, as the Department of Labor reports it
DOL received 426,659 labor condition applications from October 2025 through June 2026, 8.8% fewer than a year earlier, and certified 409,668 (DOL program statistics). DOL does not publish the split by wage level; the table above is our count from its disclosure files.
How we counted
From the Department of Labor’s LCA disclosure files for fiscal 2024, 2025 and 2026 (through June 30, 2026): filings with status Certified, visa class H-1B, at least one new-employment position and a stated wage, decided between April 1 and June 30. The check uses the same filters with no new-employment position and at least one continuing one; the state table uses the filing’s worksite state. The median wage is the median of the lowest annual wage the employer attested it would pay. Same files and filters give the same numbers.
Questions
- Did higher-wage H-1B filings rise in the first weighted-lottery season?
- Yes. Certified H-1B filings for new hires at wage Level IV rose from 7,510 in April–June 2025 to 15,809 in April–June 2026; Level I filings fell from 46,199 to 29,907. Level IV's share of filings that list a level went from 6.6% to 15.4%.
- What is the median wage on new H-1B filings in 2026?
- $115,000 in April–June 2026, up from $95,493 a year earlier — the median of the lowest annual wage employers attested they would pay, on certified H-1B filings for new hires.
- Is a certified LCA the same as an H-1B approval or a hire?
- No. An employer must have a labor condition application certified by the Department of Labor before it files an H-1B petition. Certification is permission to file; it is not a petition approval or a hire, and one filing can cover more than one position.
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Source: Footnote (usefootnote.com) analysis of U.S. Department of Labor H-1B labor condition application disclosure data, April–June 2024–2026. Licensed CC BY 4.0.
Free to republish with that credit. Press inquiries: press@usefootnote.com · What each employer certified: the H-1B tracker and pay by employer.