Wage Level Determination
When adjudicating H-1B petitions, USCIS uses the worksheet method from the DOL's 2009 Prevailing Wage Determination Policy Guidance to determine wage levels. This is DOL methodology, not an independent USCIS regulation. The method compares the employer's requirements for experience, education, training, special skills, and supervisory duties against the O*NET profile for the occupation, structured as five scoring steps.
Every determination starts at Level I (the wage level column is pre-filled with "1"). Points are added per step; if the total exceeds 4, the level is capped at Level IV.
| Step | Comparison Factor | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Step 1 O*NET Baseline | Establish baseline | No points |
| Step 2 Experience | O*NET Job Zone experience range | At/below start +0 / Low end +1 / High end +2 / Exceeds +3 |
| Step 3 Education | Usual education for the occupation | One category higher +1 / Two+ categories higher +2 |
| Step 4 Special Skills & Other Requirements | Beyond entry-level | +1~2 as applicable |
| Step 5 Supervisory Duties | Number supervised > 0 | +1 (except where supervision is customary) |
The scoring rules and examples in each step below are taken from the guidance itself — Steps 1–5 of the main text and Appendices A–E (the original PDF is linked in the related articles on this page).
Step 1: O*NET Baseline (No Points)
Identify the correct ONET-SOC occupation from the job title. Record ONET's general requirements for that occupation: education, experience, tasks, knowledge, and work activities. This step establishes the baseline only; no points are added.
Although no points are scored here, the baseline choice determines the comparison target for every subsequent step. The guidance gives two specific rules:
- Composite positions take the higher-paying occupation: if a position spans multiple O*NET occupations (the guidance's example is an engineer-pilot), the education, skill, and experience requirements of the higher-paying occupation are used as the baseline.
- Do not select the occupational code by job title alone: the full job description must be compared against the O*NET Tasks, Knowledge, and Work Activities before settling on a code. The guidance also notes that keywords in the job title are themselves level signals: lead, senior, head, chief, and journeyman point toward Level III; research fellow, worker in training, and internship point toward Level I.
Step 2: Experience
This is the step most frequently cited in RFEs. Compare the employer's required work experience against the O*NET Job Zone experience range. The guidance's scoring rules for Job Zones 2 through 5:
| Employer's experience requirement vs. Job Zone range | Points |
|---|---|
| At or below the start of the range (at or below the range) | +0 |
| In the low end of the range | +1 |
| In the high end of the range | +2 |
| Greater than the range | +3 |
The guidance stresses that points are added only when the required experience is above the starting point of the Job Zone range; it does not define the exact boundary between the low and high end, which is left to the reviewer's judgment. Job Zone 1 occupations are scored by SVP instead: SVP 1 (short demonstration only) +0, SVP 2 (up to 1 month) +1, SVP 3 (1–3 months) +2, SVP 4 (3–6 months) +3.
Take the common H1b occupation Software Engineer (Job Zone 4, experience range "over 2 years up to and including 4 years") as an example, assuming no points are added in any other step:
| Required experience | Points | Wage level (starting 1 + points) |
|---|---|---|
| 0–2 years | +0 | Level I |
| 3 years (low end of range) | +1 | Level II |
| 4 years (high end of range) | +2 | Level III |
| 5 years (exceeds range) | +3 | Level IV |
Another example: Marketing Manager is also Job Zone 4; a requirement of "3+ years" with no upper bound is read as reaching the high end of the range, scoring +2 for a final Level III.
Years of education are handled in Step 3 and are not counted in this step; however, if education has been converted into equivalent experience and scored here, Step 3 must not score the same education again.
Step 3: Education
Compare the employer's required education level against the education typically required for the occupation. For professional occupations (using Appendix D education/training categories): one category higher than usual adds +1; more than one category higher adds +2. The guidance's own example: "If the occupation generally requires a Bachelor's degree and the employer's job offer requires a Master's degree, enter a 1; if the job offer requires a Ph.D., enter a 2."
The five education/training categories in Appendix D:
| Category | Education | Typical occupations listed in Appendix D |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | First professional degree (roughly 6+ years of study) | Lawyers, physicians, pharmacists |
| 2 | Doctoral degree | Computer and Information Scientists (Research), physicists, postsecondary teachers |
| 3 | Master's degree | Statisticians, economists, urban and regional planners |
| 4 | Bachelor's or higher degree plus related work experience | Marketing Managers, Financial Managers, Engineering Managers, and other managerial occupations |
| 5 | Bachelor's degree | Computer Software Engineers, accountants, civil/electrical/mechanical engineers |
Contrasting examples (assuming no points from other steps):
- Computer Software Engineers (category 5, Bachelor's usual): requiring a Master's adds +1 → Level II; requiring a Ph.D. adds +2 → Level III.
- Computer and Information Scientists, Research (15-1011, category 2, Ph.D. already usual): requiring a Ph.D. adds +0 → still Level I. The same "Ph.D. required" line scores differently depending on the occupation's usual education, not on how high the degree is in absolute terms.
Non-professional occupations do not use Appendix D; they are compared against the education described in the occupation's O*NET Job Zone: equal to or less than what "most" or "usually" is required adds +0; more than what is "usually" required adds +1; more than the level described by what "some may require" adds +2.
Step 4: Special Skills and Other Requirements
Review job duties and special requirements (licenses, certifications, software, tools) to determine whether they indicate skills beyond an entry-level worker; the Appendix B check sheet allows 1 or 2 points in this step depending on complexity. The guidance's specific examples:
- Skills already covered by the O*NET description add nothing: if the required skills (programming languages, software, equipment, etc.) are already encompassed by the occupation's O*NET Tasks / Work Activities / Knowledge, +0; only skills "beyond those of an entry-level worker" warrant a point.
- Foreign language requirements generally add +1: a language requirement other than English is generally treated as a special skill for all occupations. The exceptions named in the guidance: Foreign Language Teachers and Instructors, Interpreters, and Caption Writers score no point; likewise, for occupations such as Specialty Cooks, the language may be required for the job without increasing its seniority or complexity, so no point need be added. Effect comparison: a customer service position requiring Chinese-English bilingual skills gets +1 → Level I becomes Level II; a Chinese specialty cook required to speak Chinese gets +0 → still Level I.
- Licenses/certifications do not score automatically: if the license is a normal entry-level requirement to practice, +0 — the guidance names attorneys (bar), teachers (teaching license), and registered nurses (RN).
- Multi-tier licenses are judged by tier: the guidance uses plumbers as the example — Journeyman Plumber versus Master Plumber licenses reflect different degrees of independent judgment and task complexity, so only a requirement for the higher-tier license may warrant a point.
- The same underlying requirement scores only once: if obtaining a license itself demands substantial experience or education that pushes the total experience to the high end of the Job Zone, a point may be added in only one of Step 2 (experience), Step 3 (education), or Step 4 (the license).
Step 5: Supervisory Duties
If the number of people supervised is greater than 0, add +1. Exception: if supervision is a customary duty of the O*NET occupation (the guidance's example is First-line Supervisors/Managers occupations), no point is added because the occupation's wage already reflects supervisory responsibilities.
Contrasting examples (assuming no points from other steps):
- A Software Engineer position whose I-129 supplement states "supervises 2 junior engineers": supervision is not customary for that occupation, +1 → Level II.
- A First-Line Supervisor of Retail Sales Workers stating "supervises 5 store clerks": supervision is customary, +0 → still Level I.
The guidance also highlights a rule change: prior guidance assigned positions with supervisory duties the higher of the two upper wage levels outright; the 2009 revision caps this at +1, on the reasoning that wage data for supervisory occupations already accounts for supervision.
Important Notes
- Only four factors are actually scored: experience, education, special skills/other requirements, and supervisory duties. Step 1 sets the baseline and is not an independent scoring factor.
- "Training" is not a separate step; it is folded into the experience, education, or skills analysis.
- No double-counting: the same underlying requirement must not earn points in multiple steps. If the work experience needed to obtain a license already raised the level in Step 2, it should not be counted again in Step 3 or Step 4.
Corresponding Questions on the I-129 H-1B Data Collection Supplement
On the I-129 Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, the H-1B and H-1B1 Data Collection and Filing Fee Exemption Supplement (Beneficiary's information, page 2) requires the employer to answer five mandatory questions:
| Form question | Corresponding step |
|---|---|
| What level of education is required for the position? | Step 3 Education |
| What field(s) of study would qualify someone for this position? | Step 1 O*NET Baseline — establishes the occupational classification, also used for the specialty occupation analysis; not directly scored |
| How many years of experience are required in order to qualify for this position? | Step 2 Experience |
| What special skills are required in order to qualify for the position? | Step 4 Special Skills and Other Requirements |
| How many people will the beneficiary supervise and what are their position titles? | Step 5 Supervisory Duties |
These five questions are precisely the inputs to the worksheet's four scoring factors (experience, education, special skills, supervisory duties) plus the O*NET baseline — through the I-129 supplement, USCIS directly collects all the information needed to run the worksheet. The supplement's answers must therefore be consistent with the wage level declared on the LCA: stating high experience requirements or supervisory duties on the supplement while the LCA is only Level I creates a contradiction and is a common trigger for wage level RFEs (see the LCA Wage Level RFE article in the related articles).
Practical Application
Job postings on the company website must differentiate descriptions according to these rules for different wage levels.