Pay, records and enforcement · Wage year 2026-27
Prevailing wage versus actual wage, and the two-part obligation
Everyone checks the published figure. The obligation is the higher of that figure and what the employer pays its own comparable staff, and the second number is invisible from outside.
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.
The wage obligation on a Labor Condition Application has two components and the employer owes the greater of them. Our reading of 20 CFR 655.731 is that the required wage is the higher of the prevailing wage for the occupation in the area of intended employment, and the actual wage the employer pays its own workers with similar experience and qualifications for the same employment at that place of employment.
The prevailing wage
This is the published one. It comes from a federal survey, it’s the same for every employer, and it changes once a year. For Software Developers in New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ in wage year 2026-27, the four figures are as follows.
| Level | Hourly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Level I | $52.81 | $109,845 |
| Level II | $66.21 | $137,717 |
| Level III | $79.61 | $165,589 |
| Level IV | $93.01 | $193,461 |
Computed from ALC_Export.csv in OFLC_Wages_2026-27.zip, wage year 2026-27.
It’s checkable by anyone with the occupation code, the county and the wage year, which is what makes it the number everybody looks at.
The actual wage
This one is internal. It’s what the employer pays its own people doing that job at that location, where those people have similar experience and qualifications. It’s not a market benchmark, it’s not an average across the industry, and it can’t be looked up from outside the company.
Two features of it cause most of the trouble. First, the employer has to be able to explain how it sets pay for the position: the system, the factors it uses, and how the visa holder was placed within it. That explanation is a document, and it belongs in What a public access file has to contain. Second, the actual wage moves. Every time the employer raises pay for comparable staff, the internal floor rises, and it rises without any filing, any notice or any 1 July.
Where there are no comparable workers at that location, the actual wage is effectively the wage paid to the visa holder, and the prevailing wage does all the work. That’s the common case for small employers and for the first hire into a role.
Which one binds, in practice
| Situation | Binding figure |
|---|---|
| Published figure above internal pay for comparable staff | The prevailing wage |
| Internal pay for comparable staff above the published figure | The actual wage |
| No comparable staff at that place of employment | The prevailing wage, in effect |
| Comparable staff receive a raise mid-year | The actual wage, from the date it rises |
Our reading of 20 CFR 655.731. This table compresses the rule and isn’t a quotation from it.
The last row is the one that produces retrospective shortfalls. A company gives its engineers a mid-year adjustment, doesn’t apply it to the visa holders because their filings already clear the published figure, and has created an underpayment against the internal floor that nobody logged.
What this means for each reader
An employer needs its pay system documented well enough to defend, and a process that re-tests visa holders against it whenever pay moves. A visa holder can verify the published half themselves, using How to check whether you're being paid correctly as a visa holder, and can’t verify the internal half without information only the employer has. If the published half already falls short, the analysis stops there and goes to What happens when the offered wage is below the prevailing wage.
Where the published figure sits depends on the level, and the level depends on the job description rather than the title. That’s How the four wage levels are determined. Where the figure applies depends on the county, which is Area of intended employment, and why the county matters more than the city.
More in pay, records and enforcement
- What happens when the offered wage is below the prevailing wage. How a shortfall arises, how it surfaces, and the range of consequences.
- Common wage level mistakes on filings. Ten recurring errors, what each one looks like on the form, and the check that catches it.
- What a public access file has to contain. The contents, the deadlines, and the one item employers most often can’t produce.
- How to check whether you're being paid correctly as a visa holder. Five inputs, one lookup, one comparison, and what to do if the numbers don’t meet.
All 24 guides are indexed at Guides. Wage figures throughout are read from ALC_Export.csv, wage year 2026-27.