The Sponsor File

Research Associate — H-1B filed wages

1,954 certified filings · FY2021–FY2026 (through Q3)

Reported wages are what employers filed with the Department of Labor — not actual take-home pay. One LCA is not one job.

Median filed wage

DOL LCA · FY2025
$81,224
n = 365filings with a wage

FY2025 median, from the 365 filings that reported a wage (of 1,954 certified filings in total) across all employers and levels. DOL LCA · FY2025

Fiscal yearFiled wageWage sample (n)
FY2026 (through Q3)$84,942
median of 242
242
FY2025$81,224
median of 365
365
FY2024$77,079
median of 365
365
FY2023$77,998
median of 332
332
FY2022$71,722
median of 366
366
FY2021$66,785
median of 280
280

How these wages are computed · All cities · All job titles

Source U.S. Department of Labor — OFLC LCA disclosure files (ETA-9035) · Coverage FY2021–FY2026 (through Q3) ·Updated 2026-08-28 · Basis certified filings only, median not average

By level — this is the number that actually applies to you

DOL LCA · FY2021–FY2026 (through Q3)
Level as filedFiled wageWage sample (n)
Junior
2 filings — too few for a median
2
Senior$77,854
median of 1,645
1,645
Lead
5 filings — too few for a median
5
Staff$71,202
median of 237
237
Principal$107,603
median of 59
59
Fellow
2 filings — too few for a median
2

“Level as filed” is taken from the job title on the filing itself — we do not infer a level that the employer did not write down. Rows below 10filings show the count only; a median from a handful of filings is not a market rate. “(unstated)” means the title carried no level, not that the role is junior.

Source U.S. Department of Labor — OFLC LCA disclosure files (ETA-9035, level read from the job title as filed) ·Coverage FY2021–FY2026 (through Q3) · Updated 2026-08-28 ·Basis certified filings only; medians, not averages

Employers filing the most Research Associate roles

top 25 by volume
EmployerFiled wageWage sample (n)
Duke University$66,494
median of 242
242
University of California, San Diego$73,337
median of 116
116
UT Southwestern Medical Center$61,900
median of 92
92
Oregon Health & Science University$75,556
median of 48
48
University of California, Los Angeles$67,166
median of 45
45
Case Western Reserve University$71,266
median of 44
44
Bernstein Institutional Services LLC$175,000
median of 33
33
Sana Biotechnology, Inc.$91,413
median of 27
27
University of Southern California$84,843
median of 23
23
Intellia Therapeutics$86,000
median of 23
23
University of California, Berkeley$70,732
median of 22
22
Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska$55,016
median of 21
21
University of Miami$63,036
median of 21
21
Tessera Therapeutics, Inc.$95,800
median of 20
20
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.$150,000
median of 20
20
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University$74,388
median of 18
18
The University of Kansas Medical Center$64,724
median of 18
18
CRISPR Therapeutics, Inc.$105,820
median of 18
18
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston$62,750
median of 18
18
Purdue University$80,100
median of 17
17
Takeda Development Center Americas, Inc.$95,000
median of 17
17
Cornell University$93,695
median of 16
16
Michigan State University$54,054
median of 15
15
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory$75,600
median of 15
15
University of Georgia$63,000
median of 14
14

Ranked by number of filings, not by pay and not by quality. This is not a “best employers” list. 486 employers in total filed for this role; the 25 above are those with the most filings. Those with at least 10 certified filings have their own page; the rest are counted here but do not.

Source U.S. Department of Labor — OFLC LCA disclosure files (ETA-9035) · Coverage FY2021–FY2026 (through Q3) ·Updated 2026-08-28 ·Basis filings counted across the whole coverage period, not one year

What this page does not cover

We build a page only for roles we can classify with confidence. The filings we do not classify are mostly three things: employer-internal job codes (“Manager JC50”), generic words that would make a useless page (“Analyst”, “Associate”), and spellings that appear only a handful of times. None of those can be grouped reliably —so we do not guess. To see every role at one company, use its employer page.

For the record: 866,533 of 3,034,814 certified filings (28.6%) reduce to one of our 29 role pages. That percentage on its own would mislead — the remainder is not a missing 71% of the job market, it is mostly text that cannot become a page.

Source U.S. Department of Labor — OFLC LCA disclosure files (ETA-9035) · Coverage FY2021–FY2026 (through Q3) ·Updated 2026-08-28 ·Basis certified filings with a job title, across the whole coverage period