Prevailing Wage for Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers
Prevailing wage for adjudications specialists is set by DOL across four experience levels, and the floor varies significantly by city. Whether your offer is for an adjudicator, administrative judge, or hearings officer role, the level your employer files at determines the minimum wage required on the Labor Condition Application.
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Entry-level adjudicators with limited professional experience in administrative hearings or claims adjudication. Typically recent graduates or those transitioning from a related legal or administrative field with direct supervision expected throughout.
Qualified adjudicators with a foundational record of independent case handling. Level 2 is the most common filing level for this occupation, covering professionals who manage standard hearings or claims with moderate supervisory oversight.
Experienced adjudicators who handle complex or high-stakes hearings with significant independence. Typically includes senior hearing officers who mentor junior staff and manage a substantial caseload with minimal supervision.
Fully competent adjudicators at the senior or lead level, setting procedural standards, handling the most complex matters, and often carrying agency-wide or programmatic responsibility with no routine supervisory oversight.
Prevailing wage for Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers by OES area
Each area on the map is a DOL OES wage zone. Click any location to see the prevailing wage floor for Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers at each level.
What’s an OES area?
The Department of Labor publishes prevailing wages for geographic zones called OES areas. Every U.S. county belongs to exactly one, and the wage floor applies across the whole area. A worker in Oakland gets the San Francisco metro wage, not a separate Oakland wage.
Top 10 cities · Level 1
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See which U.S. employers are actively hiring for this role and sponsoring H-1B, OPT, and green card visas at or above the prevailing wage.
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Watch for title aliasing on LCAs
Employers sometimes file LCAs for adjudicator roles under legal support or compliance SOC codes, which carry different prevailing wage floors. Confirm your offer letter job title matches the SOC 23-1021.00 classification on the certified LCA before accepting.
Understand why federal agency roles cluster at higher levels
Most federal and state agency adjudicator positions file at Level 3 or 4 because the work involves independent decision-making authority. A Level 1 or 2 filing for a role with full decisional independence is a flag worth questioning before signing.
Factor in metro variance before comparing offers
The prevailing wage floor for adjudicators spans a wide range between metros like Indianapolis and Little Rock. An offer that looks lower in a high-cost city may still clear the local prevailing wage floor, and vice versa for smaller markets.
Use Migrate Mate to find sponsored adjudicator roles
Migrate Mate shows which employers have historically sponsored adjudicator and hearings officer positions, letting you focus your search on agencies and organizations with a documented track record of H-1B visa or green card sponsorship for this occupation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does DOL set the prevailing wage for adjudicator roles?
DOL sets prevailing wages using Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For adjudicators and hearing officers, DOL assigns four wage levels based on experience, complexity of duties, and degree of supervisory oversight. Employers sponsoring a visa must certify on the LCA that the offered wage meets or exceeds the applicable level for the worksite location.
What do the four wage levels mean and how do I identify mine?
Level 1 covers entry-level work under close supervision. Level 2 applies to qualified professionals handling standard caseloads independently, and is the most common filing level for adjudicators. Level 3 covers experienced professionals managing complex hearings with significant autonomy. Level 4 applies to senior practitioners with broad decisional authority. Your level should match the actual duties and independence described in your job offer, not just your years of experience.
Why does the same adjudicator role pay so differently across cities?
DOL uses regional Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data to calculate prevailing wages, so each metro reflects local labor market conditions. The worksite address listed on the LCA determines which metro's wage floor applies, not where the employer is headquartered. Dense administrative and government employer markets like Washington, DC and Indianapolis show substantially higher floors than smaller markets such as Little Rock or Columbus, where competition for adjudication professionals is lower.
What happens if my job offer is below the prevailing wage for a sponsored position?
USCIS will not approve an H-1B or employment-based green card petition if the LCA wage falls below the DOL prevailing wage floor for the certified worksite. If OFLC identifies a wage deficiency during an audit, the employer may face back pay obligations and potential debarment. You should verify the wage level on the LCA reflects your actual duties before your employer files, as correcting it after certification is possible but creates delays.
How do I find and verify the prevailing wage for a specific adjudicator location?
Use the OFLC Wage Search tool to look up the current prevailing wage for SOC 23-1021.00 in any metro area. Enter the occupation code and your worksite city or county to see all four wage levels. You can cross-reference with O*NET for the occupation profile and with BLS data for broader regional wage context. Migrate Mate can also show you which employers have sponsored adjudicator roles in specific locations, helping you assess where active sponsorship activity is concentrated.
