H-1B activity in California. U.S. Department of Labor disclosure data shows 395,690 Labor Condition Applications filed on behalf of H-1B workers in California, spanning 31,657 distinct employers. DOL certified these petitions at a 98% rate, meaning the prevailing-wage and working-conditions attestations cleared preliminary review before USCIS took over final adjudication. That volume gives California a measurable footprint in the national H-1B program and a data-backed view of where foreign specialty-occupation workers are being placed on U.S. soil.

What employers are paying. The average offered wage on California H-1B petitions is $156,135. Because each LCA must meet or exceed the DOL prevailing wage for the specific role and worksite, this figure reflects genuine pay commitments rather than aspirational market surveys, and it varies with the mix of occupations, wage levels (I through IV), and metropolitan areas active in the state. The single most-sponsored occupation is Software Developers, which alone accounts for 130,465 petitions at an average of $176,578, followed by Electronics Engineers, Except Computer and Computer and Information Systems Managers.

Who does the sponsoring. The top H-1B sponsor in California is Google LLC with 23,083 petitions at an average offered wage of $185,825, followed by Apple Inc., Meta Platforms, Inc., Amazon.com Services LLC. Taken together, the 31,657 employers active in the state form a concrete picture of which industries and company sizes rely on H-1B sponsorship inside California. Because the data comes directly from DOL LCA disclosures (public record), each figure is auditable down to the individual petition, a meaningful contrast with anecdotal labor-market reporting.

Volume vs. pay, do they agree? By petition volume, California ranks #1 of 55 states. By average offered wage, it ranks #2 of 55. The two ranks are close, volume and pay move together in California more than in most states.