Salaries of H-1B visa holders increased by 15% in one decade until 2016, says study

Employers in the United States intended to pay highly skilled foreign workers holding H-1B visas a median salary of $80,000 per year in 2016, an increase from around $69,000 in the last decade, revealed an analysis of Pew Research Center of the new data of USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services). It is said to be the first time that the US government has made public salary information of H-1B visa holders. Since the majority of the H-1B applicants got visa approvals, the data provides information about the salaries of talented foreign workers employed in the US. The median salary received by the H-1B visa applicants in 2016 exceeded the median salary paid to certain American workers in similar high-skill jobs. It was also reported that 60 percent of all H-1B applicants in the period 2007-2016 were employment seekers in IT and mathematical occupations. The Trump administration is backing a plan to allow more high-skilled immigrants into the country while cutting down the numbers of low-skilled immigrants. The USCIS data shows that the total demand for H-1B visas had surged in the last one decade. The total H-1B visa application numbers filed by employers for employing foreign workers increased to 399,349 in 2016, up from 246,126 in 2009, and said to be reaching a record number in 2017. On the whole, from the year 2007 until the end of June 2017, more than 3.4 million H-1B visa applications were filed by US employers. Although the top technology companies were planning to pay the highest average salaries to holders of H-1B visa in fiscal 2016, they also intend to recruit fewer workers than other companies, revealed data on USCIS approved applications. Facebook intended to pay an average salary of $140,758, the highest average salary paid by 30 companies, which have the most number of visa approvals, to 1,107 prospective H-1B visa holders. While Apple planned to pay these work visa holders an average salary of $138,563 on 1,992 applications, Google’s employees holding H-1B visas were paid an average salary of $131,882 on 2,517 applications. If you are a skilled worker looking to work in the US, get in touch with Y-Axis, a renowned consultancy for immigration services, to apply for a work visa.