H1B Report
Salary comparison

Lawyers vs Software Developers

Side-by-side H-1B prevailing-wage comparison using the same DOL LCA data that drives every page on H1B Report. Quartiles, hiring geography, top sponsors and yearly wage drift.

Occupation A
Lawyers
SOC 23-1011Rank #45
Occupation B
Software Developers
SOC 15-1252Rank #1

Key metrics

Wage figures are offered annual wage; volume is total LCA count.

MetricLawyersSoftware Developers
Median wage$145,000$102,690
P25 wage$85,634$84,300
P75 wage$210,000$131,000
Wage spread (P75 − P25)$124,366$46,700
Total filings23,4342,843,747
Wage samples23,0212,838,792
Rank#45#1

Median wage by year

Year-over-year drift of the typical offered wage.

Lawyers
Time series: 17 points from FY2010 to FY2026
Time series
PeriodValue
FY2010$118k
FY2011$93k
FY2012$109k
FY2013$97k
FY2014$117k
FY2015$108k
FY2016$106k
FY2017$120k
FY2018$130k
FY2019$133k
FY2020$135k
FY2021$165k
FY2022$170k
FY2023$160k
FY2024$175k
FY2025$178k
FY2026$225k
Software Developers
Time series: 17 points from FY2010 to FY2026
Time series
PeriodValue
FY2010$80k
FY2011$80k
FY2012$81k
FY2013$82k
FY2014$82k
FY2015$82k
FY2016$84k
FY2017$90k
FY2018$93k
FY2019$96k
FY2020$103k
FY2021$112k
FY2022$115k
FY2023$120k
FY2024$124k
FY2025$133k
FY2026$140k

Top 5 hiring states — Lawyers

  • 1NY9,433$180,000
  • 2CA4,017$147,638
  • 3TX1,148$96,221
  • 4DC1,045$162,500
  • 5FL983$72,176

Top 5 hiring states — Software Developers

  • 1CA589,072$130,894
  • 2TX340,929$99,861
  • 3WA183,730$136,800
  • 4NJ155,389$100,000
  • 5NY131,510$112,700
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