Biochemists and Biophysicists H-1B Wage Premium
The DOL prevailing wage is the legal minimum an employer must pay for a given role, level, and location — not a target. For Biochemists and Biophysicists, certified H-1B filings pay a median of 17.9% above that floor, but 21.7% of filings are at or within 1% of the legal minimum.
What "Wage Premium" Means
Every H-1B Labor Condition Application states a DOL-determined prevailing wage — the minimum legally required for that occupation, experience level, and worksite. Wage premium is how much an employer's actual offered wage exceeds that floor. A 0% premium means the filing states exactly the legal minimum; it is not evidence of a problem, but it means the offered wage carries no information beyond what the law already requires.
Premium varies enormously by employer for the same occupation — some pay the floor on every filing, others consistently pay well above it. The table below is not a ranking of employer quality; it measures one thing only: how each employer's offered wage compares to the legal minimum for Biochemists and Biophysicists filings.
Employers Paying Furthest Above the Floor
| Employer | Certified Filings | Avg. Premium |
|---|---|---|
| University of Texas Medical Branch | 32 | +87.8% |
| Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center | 49 | +87.2% |
| National Institutes of Health, HHS | 189 | +81.4% |
| Oregon Health & Science University | 86 | +57.1% |
| The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center | 204 | +54.9% |
| The Leland Stanford, Jr University | 284 | +54.3% |
| AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP | 40 | +54.1% |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 155 | +52.5% |
Employers with at least 30 certified Biochemists and Biophysicists filings, ranked by average premium over prevailing wage.
Related H-1B Data
H1B Visa Jobs Research Team
Computed from US Department of Labor LCA disclosure files for Biochemists and Biophysicists, comparing each filing's offered annual wage to its own DOL prevailing wage figure (annualized from an hourly rate where filed hourly), filtered to certified petitions with annual wages between $30K and $1M and a positive prevailing wage on file. Per-employer premium is shown only where an employer has at least 30 qualifying Biochemists and Biophysicists filings, to keep the percentage from being driven by a handful of cases.