Prevailing Wage

Wages paid to academic personnel applying for H-1B visas may occasionally need to be higher than the UW minimums to meet federally-mandated prevailing wage requirements for nonimmigrant workers.

Before the UW can petition the Immigration Service for an H-1B visa, we must attest to the Department of Labor (DOL) that we will pay the foreign employee the prevailing wage. The prevailing wage is defined as the average wage paid to similarly-employed workers in the occupation in the geographic area of intended employment. The prevailing wage can be determined either by consulting published wage surveys meeting DOL criteria or by submitting a copy of the job description to the State Workforce Agency (SWA), which will then make a determination.

To assure institutional compliance with DOL prevailing wage requirements, the University of Washington is using geographically-relevant IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) salary survey data to determine prevailing wage for our regular faculty ranks, and we request the SWA to assess the prevailing wage for Research Associates and Senior Fellows since salary surveys meeting criteria set forth in DOL regulations are unavailable with regard to postdoctoral titles. Thus, there may be occasions where the salary offered to a foreign candidate will need to be adjusted upward to meet prevailing wage requirements.

Please contact the Office of International Students & Scholars if you have any questions.