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PERM occupation, SOC 15-1252.00, #1 of 1,410 by filings

Software Developers

Biggest sponsor
Microsoft Corporation · 6% of its filings
Busiest state
CA · 23% of its filings
Major group
Computer and mathematical · SOC 15

Weighing an offer for this job?

Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.

Compare my offer DOL's wage levels for this job

Median wage

$139,128

all PERM $103,272

Filings

76,524

#1 of 1,410

Approval

98.8%

field 96.8%

Median days

470

7 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.

Position in the field 535 occupations with 30+ decided

Median offered wage

$139,128above 88%

$18k $500k

Approval rate

98.8%ahead of 81%

49% 100%

Median days to decision

470 daysahead of 62%

323d 536d
Each bar counts occupations at that value. More
Each bar counts occupations at that value. PERM runs two labour markets through one process, which is why the wage axis is two humps rather than a bell. The line marks this one.
DOL PERM disclosure files
The wage ladder, year by year Software Developers, certified offers
  • 5th to 95th
  • 25th to 75th
  • Median
  • 10th and 90th

  1. FY2024

    $134,992 median · 18,275 certified cases

  2. FY2025

    $136,822 median · 31,323 certified cases

  3. FY2026

    $142,002 median · 23,460 certified cases

$100k$150k$200k
10th
$102,294
+8.8% since FY2024
Median
$142,002
+5.2% since FY2024
90th
$184,662
+1.5% since FY2024
95th
$209,425
+8.5% since FY2024

Each row is that fiscal year's certified filings, counted on their own. A percentile is over the year, so a year with far fewer cases behind it is a thinner measurement than one with more.

A median answers whether pay moved. More
A median answers whether pay moved. The whole ladder answers which part of it moved, and those are not the same question: a distribution can hold its middle while its top stretches away.
DOL PERM disclosure files, certified cases only
The same job, state by state 16 states filing enough of this occupation to publish a ladder
  • 5th to 95th
  • 25th to 75th
  • Median
  • 10th and 90th

  1. CA

    $167,149 median · 16,422 certified cases

  2. TX

    $129,397 median · 11,220 certified cases

  3. WA

    $147,000 median · 6,541 certified cases

  4. NJ

    $133,390 median · 5,150 certified cases

  5. NY

    $157,477 median · 4,294 certified cases

  6. GA

    $136,822 median · 2,862 certified cases

  7. IL

    $134,118 median · 2,781 certified cases

  8. VA

    $139,589 median · 2,468 certified cases

  9. MA

    $150,197 median · 2,418 certified cases

  10. NC

    $139,027 median · 2,276 certified cases

  11. MI

    $115,000 median · 1,980 certified cases

  12. FL

    $127,086 median · 1,726 certified cases

  13. PA

    $120,000 median · 1,660 certified cases

  14. OH

    $123,469 median · 1,221 certified cases

  15. AZ

    $136,552 median · 914 certified cases

  16. MN

    $130,998 median · 892 certified cases

$100k$150k$200k$250k
One SOC code, one federal process, and a wage range that moves with the state. More
One SOC code, one federal process, and a wage range that moves with the state. A state is included only when it files enough certified cases of this occupation to support seven percentiles; the rest are left out rather than drawn thin.
DOL PERM disclosure files, certified cases only

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

  1. Microsoft Corporation 4,310 filings · 99.6% approved
  2. Oracle America, Inc. 1,599 filings · 99.8% approved
  3. JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. 1,137 filings · 99.7% approved
  4. WAL-MART ASSOCIATES, INC. 1,031 filings · 99.9% approved
  5. APPLE INC. 1,014 filings · 99.6% approved
  6. NVIDIA Corporation 749 filings · 92.4% approved
How this is counted

The employers with the most applications under this code. 9,840 of 76,524 filings, 13% of the total.

Firms filing it

  1. Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP 15,091 filings · 99.3% approved
  2. Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP 7,255 filings · 99.6% approved
  3. Vialto Partners LLP 3,630 filings · 98.7% approved
  4. Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. 3,529 filings · 99.6% approved
  5. Corporate Immigration Partners, P.C. 2,296 filings · 99.2% approved
  6. Erickson Immigration Group 2,203 filings · 99.7% approved
How this is counted

The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 34,004 of 76,524 filings, 44% of the total.

Where the jobs are

  • California 17,310
  • Texas 11,637
  • Washington 6,944
  • New Jersey 5,399
  • New York 4,458
  • Georgia 3,020
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 48,768 of 76,524 filings.

Where the work is

  • Redmond, WA 3,905
  • New York, NY 3,767
  • San Francisco, CA 2,870
  • San Jose, CA 2,330
  • Austin, TX 2,291
  • Santa Clara, CA 2,255
How this is counted

The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 17,418 of 76,524 filings.

Newspapers it advertised in

  1. The Mercury News

    5,696 cases

  2. The Seattle Times

    5,297 cases

  3. The Dallas Morning News

    5,007 cases

  4. San Francisco Chronicle

    4,660 cases

  5. The Star-Ledger

    3,563 cases

  6. The New York Times

    2,904 cases
How this is counted

The newspaper or professional journal named for each case's two print ads, one count per paper per case, however the filer spelled it.

Additional steps it used

  1. Job search websites

    54,467 cases

  2. Local or ethnic newspapers

    41,479 cases

  3. The employer's website

    31,691 cases

  4. Employee referral programs

    17,339 cases

  5. Trade or professional organizations

    14,563 cases

  6. Radio or TV ads

    10,060 cases
How this is counted

The steps a professional job needs beyond the job order and the ads, by the number of cases that name each.

How long before filing it began

  1. Under 30 days

    0.0%

  2. 30 to 59 days

    under 0.1%

  3. 60 to 89 days

    18%

  4. 90 to 119 days

    24%

  5. 120 to 149 days

    21%

  6. 150 to 180 days

    37%

  7. Over 180 days

    0.3%
How this is counted

Days from the first recruitment step to the filing. 20 C.F.R. § 656.17(e) puts the job order and ads 30 to 180 days before filing.

Where every PERM employer recruits

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 2,223
  • China 415
  • Canada 55
  • Mexico 35
  • Taiwan 34
  • Ethiopia 24

Worker's education

  • Master's 2,025
  • Bachelor's 948
  • Doctorate 56
  • None 16
  • Other 7
  • Associate's 3

Visa held when filed

  • H-1B 2,531
  • F-1 264
  • L-1 124
  • TN 36
  • NOT IN USA 23
  • H-4 17

Schools

  • UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 91
  • ANNA UNIVERSITY 74
  • JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY 61
  • NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY 49
  • SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY 49
  • CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY 47

Fields of study

  • COMPUTER SCIENCE 976
  • COMPUTER ENGINEERING 285
  • ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING 203
  • INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 100
  • ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING 96
  • COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING 91

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.

What the job pays outside PERM BLS May 2025, DOL wage year 2026-27
  • United States
    1,687,890 jobs
  • San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
    San Jose, Santa Clara
  • Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
    Redmond
  • New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
    New York
  • San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
    San Francisco
  • Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX
    Austin
$100k$150k$200k$250k
  • middle half of pay (BLS)
  • median
  • 10th to 90th percentile
  • DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
  • median PERM offer
Market pay and DOL wage levels, by area
Area BLS median Level I Level II Level III Level IV
United States $135,980
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA $213,110 $152,797 $187,075 $221,374 $255,653
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA $167,280 $111,613 $143,104 $174,595 $206,086
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ $166,830 $109,845 $137,717 $165,589 $193,461
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA $186,640 $137,093 $165,131 $193,149 $221,187
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX $134,120 $95,888 $119,642 $143,395 $167,149
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
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. The marker on the national line is the median PERM offer above.
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; DOL OFLC wage tables

DOL's levels for this job in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, 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.

DOL wage levels by wage year, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
Wage year Level I Level II Level III Level IV
2026-27 $152,797 $187,075 $221,374 $255,653
2025-26 $149,365 $187,741 $226,138 $264,514
2024-25 $146,307 $172,931 $199,534 $226,158
2023-24 $135,283 $184,662 $234,062 $283,442
2022-23 $115,586 $141,378 $167,149 $192,941

Every area and both wage tables in the wage-level tool.

What the job is

Research, design, and develop computer and network software or specialized utility programs. Analyze user needs and develop software solutions, applying principles and techniques of computer science, engineering, and mathematical analysis. Update software or enhance existing software capabilities. May work with computer hardware engineers to integrate hardware and software systems, and develop specifications and performance requirements. May maintain databases within an application area, working individually or coordinating database development as part of a team.

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
+10.2%
About 95,300 openings a year (BLS)
Typical entry
Bachelor's degree
BLS

Bright Outlook O*NET OnLine lists this job for rapid growth and numerous job openings.

The work, most important first

  1. Analyze user needs and software requirements to determine feasibility of design within time and cost constraints.
  2. Develop or direct software system testing or validation procedures, programming, or documentation.
  3. Confer with systems analysts, engineers, programmers and others to design systems and to obtain information on project limitations and capabilities, performance requirements and interfaces.
  4. Modify existing software to correct errors, adapt it to new hardware, or upgrade interfaces and improve performance.
  5. Prepare reports or correspondence concerning project specifications, activities, or status.
  6. Analyze information to determine, recommend, and plan installation of a new system or modification of an existing system.

The education workers in it report

  1. Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree

    5%

  2. Bachelor's Degree

    85%

Titles people use for it

Developer, Software Architect, Software Developer, Software Engineer, Application Developer, Application Integration Engineer, DevOps Engineer (Development Operations Engineer), Infrastructure Engineer.

Related jobs: Computer Systems Engineers/Architects, Computer Systems Analysts, Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers, Computer Programmers, Database Administrators, Database Architects.

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 1 of 1,410 by volume: 0 filed at least as many filings, and 1,409 filed no more.

Just below
Computer Systems Analysts 15,316 filings

Other computer and mathematical 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.

The same job on H-1B

657,365 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $131,000 a year; the middle half ran $106,000 to $162,595. 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 15-1252.00. 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 76,524 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 Software Developers. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
Nothing here is pending
All 76,524 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 Microsoft Corporation. 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

It's on your ETA-9089 receipt. It goes into the page's address, so you can bookmark the result.

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