Salaries / Chemists / San Francisco
Chemists salaries in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
Auto-summary H-1B filings: DOL disclosure data Prevailing wages: DOL wage year 2026-27
Employers filed 100 certified H-1B applications for chemists in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA area (July 2025 to June 2026), from 47 employers.
The middle half of offers were $90,000 to $149,000 a year, with a median of $125,000: 32% above the national median for this job ($94,500).
The most common wage level was Level III (33% of filings).
The 2026-27 prevailing wage floor here is $82,410 at Level I and $106,517 at Level II.
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Wage levels
DOL sets four wage levels by experience. The share of filings at each level, and the minimum the employer must pay for that level here.
| Level | Share of filings | Prevailing wage (minimum) |
|---|---|---|
| Level I (entry) | 14% | $82,410 |
| Level II (qualified) | 24% | $106,517 |
| Level III (experienced) | 33% | $130,624 |
| Level IV (fully competent) | 28% | $154,731 |
Who sponsors chemists here
| Employer | H-1B filings | Median offer | Green card filings (PERM, this job, US) |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of California, Berkeley | 15 | $83,000 | — |
| Gilead Sciences, Inc. | 10 | $136,500 | 5 |
| Genentech, Inc. | 7 | $143,000 | — |
| Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | 6 | $89,000 | — |
| Leland Stanford Jr. Univ/SLAC National Accelerator Lab | 5 | $90,000 | — |
| Issam Tina Solutions, Inc. | 3 | $116,500 | — |
| MRL San Francisco, LLC | 3 | $131,500 | — |
| University of California, San Francisco | 2 | $106,500 | — |
| Allure Labs, LLC | 2 | $114,000 | 6 |
| Ntess Llc | 2 | $110,000 | — |
| Meadowhawk Biolabs, Inc. | 2 | $101,500 | — |
| Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC | 2 | $184,500 | — |
| Frontage Laboratories, Inc. | 2 | $108,000 | 5 |
| Arcus Biosciences, Inc. | 2 | $158,500 | — |
| Amgen Inc. | 2 | $170,000 | 3 |
More in San Francisco
Software Developers · Computer Occupations, All Other · Data Scientists · Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers · Computer Programmers · Computer and Information Systems Managers · Computer Systems Analysts · Industrial Engineers · Mechanical Engineers · Financial and Investment Analysts · Accountants and Auditors · Electronics Engineers, Except Computer
Common titles filed under this occupation: Chemist, Research Scientist, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Senior Scientist, Quality Control Chemist, Research Associate, Postdoctoral Scholar, Scientist.
About this data
Offers are the wages employers put on certified Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) for H-1B workers: Certified H-1B LCAs decided July 2025 to June 2026. An LCA is filed before a petition, so not every filing became a job, and pay excludes bonus and stock. Annual pay; hourly offers are multiplied by 2,080. Pages appear only where there were at least 100 filings. Source: DOL disclosure data and OFLC wage data. Not legal or financial advice.