How accurate is H1B salary data?
December 8, 2015 12:01 PM
I don't really trust the salary data on sites like Glassdoor or even from BLS (which contains really vague information). How accurate is the H1B site for getting some transparency into a given organizations salary data?
Are there caveats I should be taking into account (like, the listed number may be a package deal that also accounts for relocation and visa fees, etc)?
Or - if I see a job title that matches mine - either at my own organization or a competitors - I could accurately say "oh wow, someone here with the same job title actually makes 20% more than me, and that is a real actual salary that someone is actually making, and perhaps I should consider asking for more now that I have seen this accurate data."
Just want to make sure I am not missing anything here.
Are there caveats I should be taking into account (like, the listed number may be a package deal that also accounts for relocation and visa fees, etc)?
Or - if I see a job title that matches mine - either at my own organization or a competitors - I could accurately say "oh wow, someone here with the same job title actually makes 20% more than me, and that is a real actual salary that someone is actually making, and perhaps I should consider asking for more now that I have seen this accurate data."
Just want to make sure I am not missing anything here.
What you want is the prevailing wage, which is determined by the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can look up a prevailing wage for a specific job title in a specific region at the Foreign Labor Certification Data Center.
h1bdata.info does not look like a reputable website to me.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:17 PM on December 8, 2015
h1bdata.info does not look like a reputable website to me.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:17 PM on December 8, 2015
Are there caveats I should be taking into account
Although this is entirely illegal, many H1B visa employees are underpaid. There are many reasons for this, which are outside the scope of this question. However, if anything, I'd suggest the H1B data is a low salary estimate, not an accurate or high salary estimate.
posted by saeculorum at 12:18 PM on December 8, 2015
Although this is entirely illegal, many H1B visa employees are underpaid. There are many reasons for this, which are outside the scope of this question. However, if anything, I'd suggest the H1B data is a low salary estimate, not an accurate or high salary estimate.
posted by saeculorum at 12:18 PM on December 8, 2015
I just looked up one of my previous employers and my title and it indeed was my exact base salary when I started there - however, it did not include my quite generous bonus offer, and didn't include the raise I got a few months later.
posted by carmel at 12:23 PM on December 8, 2015
posted by carmel at 12:23 PM on December 8, 2015
If someone doing the same job as you at the same company has an H1B salary record that is higher than your current salary then yes, they probably earn more than you by at least that amount.
But using this data to determine if you're underpaid relative to average/prevailing conditions is difficult. There are two competing effects here, which make the data difficult to interpret.
Firstly, the number reported to UCSIS for a particular person should match the number in the formal offer. It therefore does not include bonus compensation and is out of date as soon as that person gets their first raise.
On the other hand, due to the fact that the biggest H1B employers are outsourcing firms, H1B workers are paid less than non-H1B workers, on average. The story is likely more complicated than this at the high salary end, and at "brand name" tech/finance firms, where my impression is that H1Bs probably earn more than average.
posted by caek at 1:15 PM on December 8, 2015
But using this data to determine if you're underpaid relative to average/prevailing conditions is difficult. There are two competing effects here, which make the data difficult to interpret.
Firstly, the number reported to UCSIS for a particular person should match the number in the formal offer. It therefore does not include bonus compensation and is out of date as soon as that person gets their first raise.
On the other hand, due to the fact that the biggest H1B employers are outsourcing firms, H1B workers are paid less than non-H1B workers, on average. The story is likely more complicated than this at the high salary end, and at "brand name" tech/finance firms, where my impression is that H1Bs probably earn more than average.
posted by caek at 1:15 PM on December 8, 2015
I also checked my current employer and yes, the numbers look accurate for base salary. I agree that this information is probably useful for setting a lower limit on prevailing salary, particularly if you stick to searching tech empolyers and not 3rd party consultancies.
posted by mr vino at 3:18 PM on December 8, 2015
posted by mr vino at 3:18 PM on December 8, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
So yes, I'd say it's probably a decent source for getting a ballpark for base salaries for specific roles, but may not be anywhere near accurate in terms of total comp based on the industry. Something to keep in mind when browsing the site: if you see a nice, round number like $90,000 that's a decent indication that it's close to the "standard" salary for that role in the company. But if you see something incredibly specific like $62,336, that's a pretty good sign that they would have preferred to pay the employee less, but had to begrudgingly bump it up to meet the prevailing wage for the role. You probably don't want to work for folks who won't throw a guy an extra couple hundred bucks a year to make the number pretty.
posted by phunniemee at 12:16 PM on December 8, 2015