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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchA 2015 interactive database called JobsInTech made U.S. Department of Labor visa-application records easier to search by company, year and state. It highlighted striking reported wage patterns at technology firms—but those figures were historical snapshots of application filings, not a comprehensive survey of current salaries or total compensation.
What the JobsInTech tool showed
In a 2015 report, IEEE Spectrum described software engineer Théo Négri’s JobsInTech database as an interactive way to explore Department of Labor (DOL) labor condition application (LCA) data. Négri said the underlying records had existed for years, but had not been presented in an interactive database. The tool was intended to help people see how much engineers were being paid at companies they might consider and which employers were hiring foreign workers.
The report’s examples were based on visa application wages the database displayed. They are useful as a picture of what that 2015 analysis surfaced, not as current salary benchmarks:
- For the same positions at Facebook and Google, the article said salaries had risen by $10,000 to $15,000 a year from 2014 to 2015, followed by increases of only $1,000 or $2,000 in the comparison it discussed.
- Netflix senior software engineer application salaries were reported at $240,000 to $250,000 and above, against a stated prevailing wage of $153,000 for the referenced positions. The report also said Netflix’s average application salary rose from $215,000 to $240,000 in the period it examined.
- Microsoft’s reported average rose from $116,000 to $121,000, compared with $123,000 at Apple and $124,000 at Google.
- HCL America applications for jobs in Florida numbered 29 in 2012, 123 in 2014 and 105 in the first half of 2015.
These are figures reported by IEEE Spectrum in 2015 from Négri’s examination of application records. The article’s 2015 data covered only the first half of that year, and the company figures were aggregated across locations. Its dataset also included nontechnical occupations, so an employer-wide average should not be read as a software-engineer salary.
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Why an LCA wage is not a full salary comparison
An LCA filing is an application record, not proof that a worker was ultimately hired or that the amount shown represents total compensation. It does not by itself capture equity, bonuses or benefits. A comparison between companies is meaningful only when the records are aligned on several dimensions:
- Occupation: Compare the same job or occupational category rather than mixing technical and nontechnical roles.
- Location: Wages vary geographically; a company-wide figure combining locations can obscure local differences.
- Time period: Keep fiscal years and partial-year data separate. The 2015 report’s observations included only the first half of that year.
- Wage level and measure: Identify the wage level and whether the statistic is a mean or median. IEEE Spectrum noted that Négri changed the calculation from averages to medians on 28 May 2015; an apparent IBM salary drop disappeared after the change. The earlier average-based claim and later median-based figures should not be combined as if they use one method.
- Record type: Distinguish filings from workers employed and be clear about whether the analysis covers H-1B alone or related visa categories too.
The prevailing wage is also not a generic national salary figure. DOL guidance says H-1B employers must pay at least the prevailing wage or the actual wage paid to similarly employed workers, whichever is higher. The prevailing wage is tied to occupation, geographic area and skill level. A difference between a wage shown in an application and a benchmark, on its own, does not establish underpayment or a legal violation. See DOL’s H-1B wage guidance.
How to explore current DOL LCA data
The official starting point is the DOL Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) performance-data page, which provides disclosure files and record layouts for H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 programs. The agency says the layouts changed substantially beginning in FY2020 as forms and the FLAG system changed.
- Choose the disclosure file for the fiscal year and visa program you want to analyze.
- Download the matching record layout and use it to interpret the file’s fields. Do not assume a field or coding scheme in older years means the same thing in a newer release.
- Filter to the occupation, geographic area and years relevant to your question; keep filing counts distinct from wage comparisons.
- State whether your result is a mean or median, what records and visa categories it includes, and whether any year is partial.
- Before comparing periods on either side of FY2020, check both layouts and account for the schema change.
DOL also describes public access to specified LCA-related employer records: employers must make those materials available at the relevant U.S. business or employment location within one working day of filing. Details are in the agency’s H-1B Advisor.
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Can you still use JobsInTech?
The 2015 IEEE Spectrum article documents what JobsInTech did at the time, but its present availability and maintenance status are not established. For current records, use OFLC’s official disclosure files and the corresponding layouts rather than assuming the historical interactive tool is still operating.
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