On July 1, 2023, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) uploaded the newest prevailing wage data from the Occupational Employment Survey (OES) as collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data reflects prevailing wages determined for the period July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

Notably, this year’s wage data includes a significant increase in prevailing wages for certain common job classifications in the Bay Area. For example, the annual Level 1 wage for the Software Developers classification (SOC Code: 15-1252.00) in Santa Clara County has gone from $115,586 to $135,283, representing more than a 17% increase, while the annual Level 4 wage has changed from $192,941 to $283,442, reflecting nearly a 47% increase from last year’s wage data.

In addition, the new OES wage schedule does not include data for some previously available job classifications within select geographic areas.  For example, no wage data is provided for Architectural and Engineering Managers (SOC 11-9041.00) and Computer and Information Systems Managers (SOC 11-3021.00) in Santa Clara County due to “limitations in the OES data.”

While the annual release of updated OES wage information often comes with various changes with respect to prevailing wage amounts and job classifications, the high increases reflected in the 2023-2024 survey, as well as the lack of useable data for popular job classifications in select areas, may require  employers to consider utilizing alternate wage surveys that comply with USCIS and/or DOL requirements when preparing nonimmigrant visa petitions and permanent residence cases that require the sponsoring employer to meeting  prevailing wage requirements.

For more information on how to best strategize usage of the new OFLC wage data as part of your immigration program or practice, please reach out to the T&S legal team at info@tandslaw.com.