Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 17-2081, #612 of 1,410 by filings
Environmental Engineers
- Biggest sponsor
- ARCADIS U.S., INC. · 9% of its filings
- Busiest state
- NY · 27% of its filings
- Major group
- Architecture and engineering · SOC 17
Weighing an offer for this job?
Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.
Too few cases for a rate
22 decided filings: too few for an approval rate.
Why
Across every PERM case DOL decided in this window, 3.20% were denied. At that rate a file this size comes back clean most of the time whatever the occupation did, so a percentage would be a fact about how few cases there are. Telling a clean record apart from the field takes about 117 decided cases.
Median wage
$90,472
all PERM $103,272
Filings
22
#612 of 1,410
Approval
Not shown
withheld: 22 decided
Median days
370
107 faster than the field
What it pays
Where its median offer sits among every occupation, then the whole ladder of certified offers by year and by state.
Median offered wage
$90,472median of 22 filings, too few decided to rank
Approval rate
not shownunder 30 decided
Median days to decision
370 daysmiddle of 22 decided, too few to rank
Each bar counts occupations at that value. More
Who files it
The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, the places the work sits, and who the workers were.
Sponsors filing it
- ARCADIS U.S., INC. 2 filings
- Chastain Associates, LLC 2 filings
- Energy and Environmental Economics 2 filings
- ATHENICA ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES, INC. 1 filings
- CDM SMITH INC. 1 filings
- DCP SERVICES, LLC 1 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 9 of 22 filings, 41% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak Stewart, P.C. 3 filings
- Mazel Immigration Law, PC 2 filings
- The Khosla Immigration Law Group, P.C. 2 filings
- Ann Massey Badmus PC dba Badmus Associates 1 filings
- Berry Appleman Leiden LLP 1 filings
- Connell Foley LLP 1 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 10 of 22 filings, 45% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- New York 6
- California 4
- Texas 3
- Illinois 2
- New Jersey 2
- Arizona 1
How this is counted
The worksite state on the application, which is where the job is and not where the company is headquartered. Volume by state across everyone is on the state map. These 6 states cover 18 of 22 filings.
Where the work is
- New York, NY 3
- Decatur, IL 2
- Houston, TX 2
- Austin, TX 1
- Casa Grande, AZ 1
- Clifton Park, NY 1
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 10 of 22 filings.
- Every sponsor that files it, by state, approval rate, offered wage and time to a decision
- Every filing for it, PERM, wage requests and H-1B, case by case
Who filled these jobs, FY2016 to FY2023
From DOL's old form; the form in use since mid-2023 doesn't carry them. Top six of each.
Country of citizenship
- India 204
- China 88
- Canada 35
- Iran 23
- Venezuela 13
- Nepal 11
Worker's education
- Master's 372
- Bachelor's 86
- Doctorate 62
- None 3
- Associate's 1
- High School 1
Visa held when filed
- H-1B 390
- F-1 51
- L-1 28
- TN 15
- NOT IN USA 6
- E-3 4
Schools
- ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 11
- TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY 11
- UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI 11
- ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY 10
- CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY 9
- CLEMSON UNIVERSITY 9
Fields of study
- ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING 154
- CIVIL ENGINEERING 101
- CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING 37
- CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 33
- MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 14
- ENGINEERING 7
The job itself
What O*NET says the work is, what the market pays it by BLS's survey, its outlook, and DOL's wage levels year by year.
- United States38,340 jobs
- New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJNew York
- Decatur, ILDecatur
- Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TXHouston
- Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TXAustin
- Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZCasa Grande
- middle half of pay (BLS)
- median
- 10th to 90th percentile
- DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
- median PERM offer
| Area | BLS median | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $107,110 | ||||
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $107,910 | $77,293 | $97,510 | $117,749 | $137,966 |
| Decatur, IL | — | $78,707 | $88,816 | $98,904 | $109,013 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $127,340 | $85,051 | $107,827 | $130,624 | $153,400 |
| Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX | $99,000 | $71,469 | $92,352 | $113,256 | $134,139 |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | $94,470 | $70,866 | $84,115 | $97,344 | $110,594 |
How these figures fit together
BLS surveys employers on what they pay everyone in a job; DOL builds its four levels from the same survey a year later (the July 2026 wage year uses BLS's May 2025 estimates). DOL publishes levels by area, not nationally, so the United States line has none. Levels are hourly in DOL's tables; here they're shown a year at 2,080 hours, as DOL computes them. The metros are the ones holding the most of this job's PERM filings, placed by Census's county files.
The block is the middle half of what employers report paying everyone in this job, citizen or not; the ticks under it are DOL's four prevailing wage levels for that metro, the floors a PERM or H-1B offer is held to. More
DOL's levels for this job in New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ, year by year
Each July DOL resets the four levels from BLS's newest survey. A determination keeps the figures of the year it was issued in.
| Wage year | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | $77,293 | $97,510 | $117,749 | $137,966 |
| 2025-26 | $71,906 | $94,349 | $116,792 | $139,235 |
| 2024-25 | $70,429 | $92,539 | $114,629 | $136,739 |
| 2023-24 | $65,915 | $87,672 | $109,408 | $131,165 |
| 2022-23 | $67,350 | $88,296 | $109,262 | $130,208 |
| 2021-22 | $65,000 | $85,176 | $105,331 | $125,507 |
What the job is
Research, design, plan, or perform engineering duties in the prevention, control, and remediation of environmental hazards using various engineering disciplines. Work may include waste treatment, site remediation, or pollution control technology.
- Preparation
- Considerable Preparation Needed
- O*NET Job Zone 4
- DOL's education basis
- Bachelor's degree
- Wage year 2026-27, on DOL's Appendix A list
- Jobs, 2025 to 2035
- +6.3%
- About 2,300 openings a year (BLS)
- Typical entry
- Bachelor's degree
- BLS
Bright Outlook O*NET OnLine lists this job for rapid growth.
The work, most important first
- Design, or supervise the design of, systems, processes, or equipment for control, management, or remediation of water, air, or soil quality.
- Assess the existing or potential environmental impact of land use projects on air, water, or land.
- Collaborate with environmental scientists, planners, hazardous waste technicians, engineers, experts in law or business, or other specialists to address environmental problems.
- Advise corporations or government agencies of procedures to follow in cleaning up contaminated sites to protect people and the environment.
- Develop proposed project objectives and targets and report to management on progress in attaining them.
- Monitor progress of environmental improvement programs.
The education workers in it report
- 62%
Bachelor's Degree
- 29%
Master's Degree
Titles people use for it
Engineer, Environmental Engineer, Environmental Remediation Specialist, Sanitary Engineer, Air Pollution Control Engineer, Engineering Consultant, Environmental Analyst, Environmental Consultant.
Related jobs: Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health, Water/Wastewater Engineers, Environmental Engineering Technologists and Technicians, Brownfield Redevelopment Specialists and Site Managers, Environmental Compliance Inspectors, Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health.
This section includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database and O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. PERM Tracker has modified some of this information (the shares are rounded and only the top tasks are shown); what changed. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Against other jobs
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 612 of 1,410 by volume: 611 filed at least as many filings, and 798 filed no more.
- Just above
- Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists 22 filings
- Just below
- Painter Helper 22 filings
Other architecture and engineering roles
Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. More
Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. Wages inside a group still swing hard, because the group holds every seniority level and every metro.
- #622 Surveyors 21 filings · none denied
- #601 Nanosystems Engineers 22 filings · none denied
- #624 Aerospace Engineers 21 filings · 2 denied
- #628 Mechanical Engineers, R&D 20 filings · none denied
- #632 Fire-Prevention and Protection Engineers 20 filings · 2 denied
- #584 Mechanical Drafters 24 filings · none denied
The same job on H-1B
2,842 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $86,678 a year; the middle half ran $72,254 to $107,387. By state and year in the salary explorer.
Notes on these numbers
Reading the wage
A floor, not a salary survey: every level and metro mixed. DOL's four wage levels for this job, by area.
What the median is
The median wage employers committed to in federal filings for this occupation. It mixes every experience level and every metro, and it's a floor: the employer must offer at least the prevailing wage DOL determines for the occupation, level and county. Across all PERM filings the middle half of offered wages runs $45,178 to $141,357, so a figure inside that band is unremarkable whichever occupation it belongs to. The levels page reads DOL's OFLC wage search live.
What these numbers don't say
4 notes
- The code is the identity
- This one is SOC 17-2081. Two SOC codes can carry the same job title, so a title that looks duplicated on the ranking is two different occupations. Match on the code when you're checking a specific filing.
- A median isn’t an offer
- It's the middle of all 22 wages committed to for this occupation across the country, entry level and principal alike. The same role's medians swing hard by worksite, which the state map shows directly.
- Approval isn’t about the occupation
- The denial rate moves with what happened in the filing rather than with the job title, so nothing here is a property of Environmental Engineers. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 22 counted here carry a decision date, because every case in DOL's disclosure files does, so a case still waiting is in none of them. The largest filer of this occupation is ARCADIS U.S., INC.. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.
The window these figures cover: DOL's PERM disclosure files for fiscal years 2024 to 2026, through the third quarter of 2026, 373,939 decided cases. Nothing pending is counted here. How each figure is built
Weighing an offer?
Compare it against this median, then check the state map, where the same occupation's medians swing hard by worksite.
Setting one?
All 1,410 occupations sort together on the wages page, and denial rates show how outcome moves with the offered wage.
Filings newer than DOL's last published file can't be attributed to this occupation until DOL publishes them. The live list on the case search page carries them by employer.
Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly
Employers and firms: Derived from DOL's disclosure files · data through Jun 30, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly load
O*NET occupation data: O*NET Database, USDOL/ETA (onetcenter.org) · data through Aug 16, 2026 · twice a year
BLS market pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (bls.gov) · data through May 31, 2025 · yearly, each spring
BLS employment projections: BLS Employment Projections (bls.gov) · data through Dec 31, 2025 · yearly, each autumn
DOL wage tables: DOL OFLC wage data downloads (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jul 1, 2026 · yearly, each july
What each source includes
Case data: Decided PERM cases only. A case still waiting isn't in here, so counts and durations describe finished cases.
Employers and firms: Employers, law firms and occupations ranked from decided cases only.
O*NET occupation data: What O*NET says each occupation is and takes: its description, tasks, Job Zone and the education workers report. A description of the job everywhere, not of any one employer's opening.
BLS market pay: What employers report paying everyone in each job, nationally, by state and by metro, from BLS's yearly survey (May of the year named). Citizens and immigrants alike; not PERM offers.
BLS employment projections: BLS's ten-year projection of each job's employment and yearly openings, and the entry education it calls typical. A projection, not a count.
DOL wage tables: The four prevailing wage levels DOL publishes for every job in every area, each wage year from 2021-22, as DOL's own tables print them. The floors an offer is held to, not what anyone was paid.
Cite this page
Waiting on a PERM case?
- When it'll likely be decided
- An email when DOL moves it