Iowa Salaries by Worksite

Median offered wage — worksites in Iowa, FY2024–FY2025
$96,304
2,620 certified cases with a Iowa worksite, middle-half range $77,792 to $123,489.
2,620Certified cases
$96,304Median offered wage
$117,590Mean offered wage
$77,792–$123,489Middle half range
2,261Annual-wage rows used

Filings with a worksite in Iowa show a median offered wage of $96,304, which sits about 22% below the national median of $123,282. State-level medians blend every occupation and every metro in the state, so they are best used as a first orientation rather than a benchmark for a specific job. A state whose filings concentrate in one expensive metropolitan area will look very different from a state whose filings are spread across smaller cities, even if pay for the same occupation in the same kind of city is similar in both places.

There are 2,620 certified cases for Iowa in the FY2024–FY2025 files. The legal significance of the worksite is that the prevailing wage for a filing is determined for the area of intended employment. Employers must offer at least the prevailing wage or the actual wage paid to similarly employed workers, whichever is higher, and that requirement is assessed place by place. This is why the occupation and city breakdowns below matter more than the state headline: they show which roles and which local labour markets are actually producing this state's figures.

Wage Table — Iowa

MeasureAnnual wageWhat it means
25th percentile$77,792A quarter of annual-wage filings offered less than this
Median (50th percentile)$96,304Half of filings offered more, half offered less
Mean (average)$117,590Pulled up or down by very high and very low offers
75th percentile$123,489Only a quarter of filings offered more than this
Lowest included offer$16,000After the outlier rule described in the methodology
Highest included offer$800,000Offers above $1,000,000 are excluded as likely placeholders
All-employer median, this dataset$123,282Comparison point across every certified filing

Top Employers in Iowa

EmployerCertified cases
The University of Iowa360
Rockwell Collins Inc.170
Iowa State University of Science and Technology135
COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS US CORP108
Genesis Health System60
MAHARISHI International UNIVERSITY50
Deere & Company50
Siri Consultancy Services, Inc.38

The employers at the top of a state ranking are usually a mixture of locally headquartered firms, national firms with a major site in the state, and consulting firms placing workers at client locations there. Distinguishing those three groups matters when interpreting pay: a firm placing staff at client sites files where the client is, so its presence in this state says more about its clients' locations than about its own offices. Each employer's linked page shows its national occupation mix, which helps a reader judge whether its Iowa filings are likely to be its core workforce or client placements.

Top Occupations in Iowa

OccupationCertified cases
Software Developers677
Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists119
Computer Systems Engineers/Architects109
Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers84
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Workers, All Other72
Information Technology Project Managers63
Mechanical Engineers54
Registered Nurses52

Occupation mix is the main reason state medians differ. States with a heavy concentration of technology, finance or specialised healthcare filings show higher medians than states where filings spread across education, general healthcare and other professional services — even when each occupation is paid similarly in both states. If you are researching a specific career in Iowa, start from the occupation row above, move to that occupation's national page, and then compare the city pages for the places in Iowa where that occupation actually clusters. That sequence gives a far more honest benchmark than any single state-wide number.

How These Figures Were Computed

Every figure on this page was computed by our script directly from the U.S. Department of Labor OFLC LCA disclosure files for FY2024 Q4 and FY2025 Q1–Q4, retrieved in October 2026. We kept only cases whose CASE_STATUS is exactly “Certified” — denied, withdrawn and certified-withdrawn cases are excluded. Headline medians use filings whose wage unit is a year, because annual salaries compare cleanly; hourly, weekly and monthly filings are counted in case totals but are not converted into the headline median, and our methodology page explains that choice in full. Wages below $15,080 a year (the annualized federal minimum wage at $7.25 an hour) or above $1,000,000 a year are excluded from medians as likely data-entry placeholders, and the number excluded is reported in the manifest that accompanies this site. Medians are shown alongside means because a handful of very large offers can drag a mean far above what a typical filing actually offered.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the median offered wage in Iowa in these filings?

Across 2,261 annual-wage certified filings with a worksite in Iowa in FY2024–FY2025, the median offered wage is $96,304, compared with a national median of $123,282 across all worksites.

How many certified LCA cases have a Iowa worksite?

There are 2,620 certified cases with a worksite in Iowa in the FY2024 Q4 and FY2025 Q1–Q4 files. Worksite is the place where the work is performed, which may differ from the employer's headquarters address.

Which employers file most in Iowa?

The largest filer with Iowa worksites in this dataset is The University of Iowa, with 360 certified cases. The full ranking appears in the employer table on this page, together with filing counts and shares.