H1B Report
Salary comparison

Materials Engineers vs Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers

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
Materials Engineers
SOC 17-2131Rank #66

Key metrics

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

MetricMaterials EngineersSoftware Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers
Median wage$92,000$81,600
P25 wage$77,355$68,715
P75 wage$115,000$100,005
Wage spread (P75 − P25)$37,645$31,290
Total filings13,303375,227
Wage samples13,251374,517
Rank#66#4

Median wage by year

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

Materials Engineers
Time series: 17 points from FY2010 to FY2026
Time series
PeriodValue
FY2010$74k
FY2011$75k
FY2012$76k
FY2013$78k
FY2014$78k
FY2015$80k
FY2016$80k
FY2017$81k
FY2018$84k
FY2019$86k
FY2020$85k
FY2021$91k
FY2022$96k
FY2023$97k
FY2024$110k
FY2025$110k
FY2026$124k
Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers
Time series: 17 points from FY2010 to FY2026
Time series
PeriodValue
FY2010$75k
FY2011$70k
FY2012$68k
FY2013$68k
FY2014$69k
FY2015$70k
FY2016$71k
FY2017$74k
FY2018$82k
FY2019$85k
FY2020$88k
FY2021$94k
FY2022$97k
FY2023$98k
FY2024$100k
FY2025$103k
FY2026$107k

Top 5 hiring states — Materials Engineers

  • 1CA2,728$109,533
  • 2OR1,818$120,640
  • 3MI1,008$84,032
  • 4TX992$91,998
  • 5NY791$81,037

Top 5 hiring states — Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers

  • 1CA70,691$96,325
  • 2TX39,545$83,303
  • 3NJ23,688$72,630
  • 4WA20,111$88,000
  • 5IL18,114$74,880

Top 5 sponsors — Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers

Swap an entity
Replace either occupation above without losing the comparison. 2-way for now; 3+ comparison coming soon.