Metal Ore Mining 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. Employers classified under Metal Ore Mining (NAICS 2122) pay a median of 14.8% above that floor, but 24.9% 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 within the same industry, 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 Metal Ore Mining filings.
Employers Paying Furthest Above the Floor
| Employer | Certified Filings | Avg. Premium |
|---|---|---|
| BHP Minerals Service Company | 39 | +25.4% |
| Rio Tinto Services Inc. | 73 | +22% |
| Freeport-McMoRan Morenci Inc. | 62 | +20.3% |
| Kennecott Utah Copper LLC | 94 | +19.3% |
| Freeport Minerals Corporation | 85 | +17.5% |
| Nevada Gold Mines LLC | 104 | +15.6% |
| Northern Star (POGO) LLC | 37 | +1.9% |
Employers with at least 30 certified filings in this industry, ranked by average premium over prevailing wage.
Related H-1B Data
Sponsor Intel Pro
🔍 Know your H1B sponsors inside out
Research 100K+ H1B sponsors with approval rates, salary data, and transfer success rates.
- ✓ 100,000+ verified employers
- ✓ Real LCA approval rates
- ✓ Salary & benefits breakdown
- ✓ Transfer difficulty scoring
H1B Visa Jobs Research Team
Computed from US Department of Labor LCA disclosure files for employers classified under NAICS 2122, Metal Ore Mining, 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 filings in this industry, to keep the percentage from being driven by a handful of cases.