The filing itself · Wage year 2026-27
Reading an LCA: the fields that matter
Most of Form ETA-9035 is administrative. A small number of fields carry the entire wage promise, and those are the ones to read first, in this order.
The Labor Condition Application is the form an employer files with the Department of Labor before a petition for H-1B, H-1B1 or E-3 status. It’s Form ETA-9035 and its electronic twin ETA-9035E, filed through the department's FLAG system. A certified copy ends up in the petition and in the employer's public access file, so it’s a document a visa holder can ask for and read.
Read it in this order. Each field constrains the next, and a mismatch anywhere in the chain is where problems start.
Visa class and period of employment
The form states which classification it supports: H-1B, H-1B1 for Chile or Singapore, or E-3 for Australia. It also states the begin and end dates of the intended employment. An application supports employment only inside those dates, and the wage obligation runs with them.
Occupation code and job title
Two separate fields. The job title is whatever the employer calls the role. The occupation code is the Standard Occupational Classification code and its official title, and that’s the field the wage table is keyed to. They don’t have to match in wording and frequently don’t. If they describe visibly different work, that’s worth asking about before anything else, for the reasons in SOC codes, and how a job maps to one.
The rate of pay
The offered wage appears as a range, with a "from" figure, an optional "to" figure and a unit: hour, week, bi-weekly, month or year. The binding number is the bottom of that range. A range from one figure to a much larger one doesn’t promise the larger figure, and reading the top of the range as the salary is a common misreading by employees looking at their own filing.
The prevailing wage and its source
A separate block states the prevailing wage the employer used, its unit, where it came from, and the year of that source. The source field distinguishes the published OFLC wage tables from a collective bargaining agreement, an independent survey, or a wage set under the Davis-Bacon or Service Contract Acts. If the source is anything other than the published tables, the reasoning has to be documented, which is the subject of Using a private wage survey instead of the OES figure.
The year of the source field is the one people skip. A wage year runs from 1 July to 30 June, so a figure and a year together are checkable and a figure alone isn’t. The current vintage here’s 2026-27, and the calendar is set out in The wage year calendar, and when the figures change.
The worksite
Address, city, county, state and postcode, plus the number of workers at that site. The county is the field that decides which wage table applies, not the city, for reasons covered in Area of intended employment, and why the county matters more than the city. An application can carry more than one worksite, which changes what has to be checked: see Multiple worksite locations on one filing.
Full-time flag and hours
The form asks whether the position is full-time. If it’s not, the hours have to be stated. That interacts with how the wage is expressed, and the arithmetic is set out in Full time versus part time, and how the wage is stated.
The attestations and the public disclosure block
A short set of attestations covers the wage obligation, working conditions, the absence of a strike or lockout, and notice to workers. Employers that are H-1B dependent or have been found to be willful violators carry additional attestations unless the filing covers exempt workers only. A further field states where the public access file is kept, which is what makes What a public access file has to contain a document a person can actually go and read.
Checking the wage field against the tables
Reading an application is mechanical once the fields are in hand. Take the occupation code, the county, the wage year and the level, look up the published figure, and compare it against the prevailing wage stated on the form. For Software Developers in New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ in wage year 2026-27, the four published figures are the following, annualized at 2,080 hours.
| 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.
If the stated prevailing wage matches one of those figures, the level is identifiable even when the form doesn’t label it. If it matches none of them, either the source isn’t the published tables, the wage year is different, or something is wrong. All three are worth resolving. What the certification does and doesn’t settle is covered in What an LCA actually certifies, and what it doesn’t.
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.
More in the filing itself
- What an LCA actually certifies, and what it doesn’t. The narrow thing certification establishes, and the four things it leaves entirely open.
- The prevailing wage determination request, Form ETA-9141. The form that gets you a figure the department issued, when it’s required, and what it buys.
- Using a private wage survey instead of the OES figure. When an alternative survey is allowed, what it has to look like, and why most commercial data fails.
- Full time versus part time, and how the wage is stated. Hourly to annual, how part-time hours are stated, and what’s owed when the work stops.
All 24 guides are indexed at Guides. Wage figures throughout are read from ALC_Export.csv, wage year 2026-27.