H‑1B Wages Surge to the Top 10% of All Wages in the US

Opponents of the H‑1B visa often claim that H‑1B employers “pay low wages.” This has never been true, but the latest wage data prove how ridiculous this claim is. H‑1B workers are highly paid: their wages are in the 90^th percentile of all wages in the United States, meaning that they have wages in the top 10 percent of U.S. wage earners. H‑1B workers are not low wage or “cheap” workers in any honest assessment of the meaning of those words.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced last week that the median wage for all U.S. workers in 2021 was $45,760 and that the 90^th percentile for all U.S. wages was $102,810. Meanwhile, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the median wage for H‑1B worker in 2021 was about $108,000—above the 90^th percentile and well over double the median wage for all U.S. workers. The majority of H‑1B workers are making more than all but about 8 percent of U.S. workers.

Figure 1 shows how H‑1B wages have surged above the 90^th percentile for the first time since DHS has reported H‑1B wages in 2003. It also shows that H‑1B wage growth has exceeded the growth for all U.S. workers. From 2003 to 2021, the nominal median H‑1B wage grew 52 percent, while the nominal median for all U.S. workers grew just 39 percent. If H‑1B employers could just pay whatever they want—as opponents claim—these increases would not be happening.