How a determination is built · Wage year 2026-27

SOC codes, and how a job maps to one

Nothing about a prevailing wage can be looked up until the job has an occupation code. Getting that code wrong changes the figure, and the code is picked from duties rather than from the job title.

Classification: 2018 SOCOccupations here: 60Format: XX-XXXX

The Standard Occupational Classification is the federal system for sorting work into occupations. Every prevailing wage figure is keyed to a SOC code and an area, so the code is the first decision in any filing and the one everything else inherits. The wage tables have no opinion about job titles.

How the code is structured

A SOC code has the form XX-XXXX. The first two digits are the major group, the next digit the minor group, the following two the broad occupation, and the last the detailed occupation. Software Developers is 15-1252: major group 15, which is computer and mathematical occupations, narrowing to a detailed occupation at the end. Prevailing wages are published at the detailed level, so a filing needs all six digits.

Codes ending in 9 are the residual "all other" categories inside a group. They’re legitimate, and they’re also where a match goes when nothing fits cleanly. Filing into one is a signal worth checking rather than an error in itself.

How a job gets matched

The match runs from duties, not from the title on the requisition. The practical method is to write out what the person will spend most of their time doing, then read the published occupation definitions and find the one that describes that work. The definitions are specific, and they’re the text the match has to survive.

Here’s the definition this site carries for Software Developers, taken from the occupation file rather than paraphrased: Research, design, and develop computer and network software or specialized utility programs. Analyze user needs and develop software solutions, applying principles and techniques of computer science, engineering, and mathematical analysis. Update software or enhance existing software capabilities. May work with computer hardware engineers to integrate hardware and software systems, and develop specifications and performance requirements. May maintain databases within an application area, working individually or coordinating database development as part of a team.

Occupation definition from the OFLC occupation file in OFLC_Wages_2026-27.zip.

Read that against a job that’s mostly writing analytics pipelines, or mostly running a team, and the fit weakens. Both of those have their own codes. When two definitions both look plausible, the tiebreaker is where the majority of the time goes, and it’s worth writing that reasoning down while it’s fresh, because it may need restating years later.

Why the code changes the money

Different codes carry different wage tables in the same city. In New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ, Software Developers at Level II is $137,717 a year. Change the occupation and the whole cell changes, not by a small adjustment but by whatever the survey found for a different population of workers. That’s the mechanism behind most of the wage disputes that reach a review: the argument is nominally about a wage, and it’s actually about a code.

Computed from ALC_Export.csv in OFLC_Wages_2026-27.zip, wage year 2026-27.

Pairs that get confused

Software developers against computer systems analysts. The first builds the software, the second studies procedures and specifies how systems should work. A role that mostly gathers requirements isn’t automatically a developer.
Data scientists against operations research analysts and statisticians. All three model data. The published definitions differ on method and on what the output is for, and the distinction is worth reading rather than guessing.
A named detailed occupation against the "all other" residual in the same group. If the detailed definition fits, the residual is the wrong answer even when the residual is more convenient.
An individual contributor occupation against the corresponding management occupation. Supervision is inherent in the management code, which changes what the supervisory step does in the level determination.

Getting it on the record

Both the Labor Condition Application and a prevailing wage determination request state the occupation code and title. If the employer wants the Department of Labor's own view of the classification before filing, the mechanism is the request described in The prevailing wage determination request, Form ETA-9141. The fields where the code appears on the application itself are covered in Reading an LCA: the fields that matter.

Every occupation this site covers has its own page with the code, the definition, the Job Zone, the usual entry education and the wage figures for each area. The index is All 60 occupations.