Pew Research Center
Demand for the high-skilled worker visas has boomed in recent years, and the H-1B program is now the primary way employers in the U.S. hire high-skilled foreign workers. The program could shrink under the Trump administration, which has recently placed stricter requirements on applications.
Nationwide, foreign workers approved for H-1B visas earned an average of $80,600 in fiscal 2010-2016. Bridgeport, Connecticut, had the highest average salary ($100,200) of any metro area, followed by Seattle ($98,100) and Phoenix ($97,100). In College Station, the Texas metro area with the greatest concentration of H-1B workers in its workforce, the average salary in 2010-2016 was $82,600.
About half (49%) of H-1B approvals in recent years have gone to foreign workers with an advanced degree (master’s, professional or doctorate) earned either in the U.S. or internationally.
Some metro areas with relatively small numbers of H-1B approvals stood out in the hires of workers with advanced degrees. In Erie, Pennsylvania, three-fourths (75%) of H-1B approvals in fiscal 2010-2016 went to foreign workers with advanced degrees. That was followed by Memphis, Tennessee, and Phoenix (both 69%) and Sacramento, California (68%)
