Guide
LCA filed wages versus OEWS
Filed wages and OEWS wages answer different questions. Here is what each measures and by how much they differ in the data.
Data, not advice. This page explains public data. It is not legal advice and does not decide which wage level, occupation or filing applies to any job or person. Employers and their counsel make those decisions.
Two different questions
LCA wages answer: what wage did this employer state, on a federal form, for this job at its first worksite? OEWS answers: what do employers in this area report paying the wage and salary workers in this occupation, as of the survey's reference period? They are built differently, so they should differ.
Why they differ
- Bottom of the range. The filed number is the start of the offered range (
WAGE_RATE_OF_PAY_FROM). OEWS estimates are built from the wage rates employers report for their workers (or, for some establishments, wage intervals). - Who is in the group. OEWS wages are estimates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments, excluding the self-employed, from a survey of establishments pooled over six semiannual panels collected over three years (BLS, May 2025 technical notes). A filing is a new or continuing role an employer chose to sponsor.
- What counts as wage. BLS describes OEWS wages as straight-time gross pay, exclusive of premium pay: base rate, cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed pay, hazardous-duty pay, incentive pay including commissions and production bonuses, and tips are included; overtime, severance, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses, employer cost for supplementary benefits and tuition reimbursements are excluded. A filing records one rate in one unit.
- Time. The filings here are determinations from October 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. OEWS estimates have a May 2025 reference period; BLS adjusts wages from the older panels to that date.
- Place and units. Each filing is matched to the OEWS metro for its worksite county, or the state when no metro figure exists, and hourly or monthly rates are annualized here at 2,080 hours and standard multipliers; BLS publishes only hourly wages for occupations whose workers are typically paid hourly and do not work full time all year, so the annual figure for those is ours, not BLS's.
What the data shows
The ratio below is each filing's wage divided by the OEWS median for its own occupation and area, then the median across filings. A ratio of 1.00 means the median filing matched OEWS.
| Group | Median filed wage | Matched ratio to OEWS | Filings |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States, all filings | $126,818 | 0.98 | 400,956 |
| Amazon | $158,000 | 1.01 | 20,053 |
| $193,000 | 1.03 | 7,421 | |
| Software Developers in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $191,886 | 0.90 | 14,027 |
| Software Developers in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | $120,000 | 0.90 | 13,937 |
| Software Developers in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $172,600 | 1.03 | 13,447 |
Use the offer check to place an offer against both. The matched ratio uses each filing's own occupation and metro, which is why it can disagree with a comparison against a single national figure.
Questions
Which one should I compare an offer with?
Both are useful and neither is a ceiling or a floor. OEWS estimates what employers pay wage and salary workers in the job and area, from a survey of establishments. Filed wages show what employers stated on the application, at the bottom of the range, for roles they sponsored.
Why is the matched ratio below 1.00 in some places?
Likely reasons include that filed wages are the bottom of each range and that OEWS covers all wage and salary workers in the occupation, including those with long tenure. A ratio under 1.00 means the median filing sat below the OEWS median for its own occupation and area; the data cannot say which reason applies to a given group.
Stay current
New data releases by email
A short note when new filing data changes these ratios.