Across programs and over time · Wage year 2026-27
Multiple worksite locations on one filing
A filing with two worksites isn’t one wage obligation. It’s two, and the higher one doesn’t automatically cover the lower.
Read this firstThis is a computed reading of published federal data and published federal guidance, not legal advice. Only the Department of Labor issues prevailing wage determinations, and only the Department of Labor decides whether an obligation has been met. Where a rule below is our reading rather than a verbatim quotation, the text says so.
A Labor Condition Application has room for more than one worksite, and plenty of real jobs need it: a role split between two offices, a consultant placed at a client site, a team that moves. Adding a second address is easy. What it does to the obligations is the part worth understanding before the form is submitted.
Each place of employment carries its own wage
The prevailing wage is set for an occupation in an area of intended employment. Two worksites in different areas mean two prevailing wages, and the applicable figure at each place is the one for that area. They can be very far apart. For Software Developers at Level II in wage year 2026-27:
| Area | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $152,797 | $187,075 | $221,374 | $255,653 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $109,845 | $137,717 | $165,589 | $193,461 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | $95,202 | $116,896 | $138,590 | $160,285 |
Computed from ALC_Export.csv in OFLC_Wages_2026-27.zip, wage year 2026-27.
The spread between San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX at Level II is $70,179 a year on the same occupation and the same level. A filing that lists both and states one wage has to state a wage that works at the more expensive of them for the time the person is there.
The common conservative practice is to offer at or above the highest applicable figure across all listed worksites, which removes the tracking problem entirely. It also costs money. The alternative, paying the applicable figure at each site as the person moves, is defensible and requires records good enough to prove where the person was and what they were paid at the time.
Notice at every place of employment
The notice obligation follows the worksites rather than the filing. Our reading of 20 CFR 655.734 is that notice has to be given at each place of employment, either by posting in conspicuous locations for the required period or by electronic notification to the relevant employees, and that this applies at a third party's site as much as at the employer's own. Read the regulation before designing a process around this.
Short-term placement
There’s an allowance for sending a worker to a site outside the areas on the filing for a limited number of workdays, set out at 20 CFR 655.735. It carries conditions: a day limit measured over a period, a requirement to keep paying the required wage, and a requirement to cover the worker's travel and subsistence at the temporary location. It’s not a general license to move people. Read it directly, because summaries of it, including this one, drop conditions.
Third-party worksites
A client site is a place of employment. The area is the client's county, not the vendor's headquarters, which is the mechanism described in Area of intended employment, and why the county matters more than the city. Staffing and consulting arrangements collect obligations quickly for exactly this reason: several clients, several counties, several wage tables, one employee.
When the sites change
Adding a worksite in an area not covered by the existing filing isn’t a paperwork adjustment. It’s the change that most often triggers a new application and an amended petition, and it’s the subject of Amended petitions and material change. Moving within an area already covered is a different case, with its own notice consequences.
Everything above is per-site rather than per-filing. The evidence that each site was handled correctly, including notice and the wage documentation for each area, belongs in What a public access file has to contain. The fields on the form where the worksites are stated are covered in Reading an LCA: the fields that matter.
More in across programs and over time
- H-1B versus H-1B1 versus E-3, and how the wage rules differ. One wage rule, three classifications, and a table of what actually differs.
- PERM prevailing wage, and how it differs from H-1B. The mandatory determination, the 100 per cent rule, and the timing difference that surprises people.
- Amended petitions and material change. What counts as material, the geographic rule, and what happens to the wage when the job moves.
- Wage level and the H-1B lottery, including what changed and what didn’t. What’s settled about the cap and the wage obligation, and the selection question we won’t answer.
All 24 guides are indexed at Guides. Wage figures throughout are read from ALC_Export.csv, wage year 2026-27.