2026 Edition · An annual reference on what work pays

Populus Group

Offered base salaries from 262 certified H-1B filings, across 15 roles in 30 metro areas.

DOL LCA disclosures · FY 2025 Certified, full-time filings only
Table 1 — The median offer

Half of Populus Group's certified filings offered $124,800 or more.

The middle half of offers fell between $109,512 and $145,600. Offered base salary excludes equity and bonus — read every figure on this page as a floor on total pay, not an average.

Table 2 — Roles

What they hire for

Offered base salary by occupation, nationwide, ordered by filing volume.

RoleMedian offerRangeFilings
Software Developers$135,200$75k – $229k72
Data Scientists$114,400$62k – $197k41
Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers$128,898$77k – $177k29
Computer Occupations, All Other$135,200$58k – $177k20
Computer Programmers$114,400$73k – $166k14
Industrial Engineers$122,034$94k – $192k11
Computer Systems Analysts$114,400$62k – $166k10
Database Architects$150,010$100k – $208k10
Mechanical Engineers$109,512$75k – $146k10
Network and Computer Systems Administrators$136,240$101k – $146k6
Table 3 — Metro areas

Where they hire

The same filings by worksite metro area.

Metro areaMedian offerRangeFilings
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ$135,200$80k – $187k22
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX$128,960$80k – $191k21
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA$139,360$77k – $208k15
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA$155,605$125k – $182k14
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI$119,850$94k – $172k13
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA$135,283$114k – $192k12
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV$114,400$82k – $162k11
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH$132,600$84k – $137k10
Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ$124,800$110k – $166k9
Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO$124,800$103k – $174k8
Table 4 — Against the market

Offers beside the local going rate

Each row compares Populus Group's median offer with the median for everyone in that occupation and metro, from federal wage statistics.

Role — MetroMedian offerFilingsvs. market
Computer Occupations, All Other — San Francisco$145,6007−10.0%
Data Scientists — Dallas$124,8007−2.3%
Software Developers — New York$156,0006−6.5%
Computer Programmers — San Jose$126,8805−18.1%
Software Developers — Dallas$149,7605+12.4%
Software Developers — Washington$114,4005−26.2%
Data Scientists — Los Angeles$74,8805−42.3%
Data Scientists — New York$133,1205−2.1%
Sources

How this page was made

Employer pay
US Department of Labor, Labor Condition Application disclosures, FY 2025. Public records.
Coverage
262 certified full-time H-1B filings. Groups under 3 filings are excluded throughout.
Market comparison
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.

Filings state the offered base salary at time of application; equity and bonus are not recorded, and visa-sponsored hiring skews toward larger employers and technical roles — this page describes Populus Group's visa filings, not its whole workforce. Employer names are normalised from filing entities, so figures cover the filing entity named above. We take no payment from employers for how any figure is presented, and corrections are welcome at press@salaryalmanac.com.