Salaries / Software Developers / Chicago
Software Developers salaries in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
Auto-summary H-1B filings: DOL disclosure data Prevailing wages: DOL wage year 2026-27
Employers filed 4,471 certified H-1B applications for software developers in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN area (July 2025 to June 2026), from 1,501 employers.
The middle half of offers were $108,000 to $153,500 a year, with a median of $130,500: 9% below the national median for this job ($143,500).
The most common wage level was Level II (43% of filings).
The 2026-27 prevailing wage floor here is $92,789 at Level I and $117,083 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) | 11% | $92,789 |
| Level II (qualified) | 43% | $117,083 |
| Level III (experienced) | 24% | $141,398 |
| Level IV (fully competent) | 22% | $165,693 |
Who sponsors software developers here
| Employer | H-1B filings | Median offer | Green card filings (PERM, this job, US) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medline Industries, LP. | 183 | $139,500 | 30 |
| Capital One Services, LLC | 151 | $149,000 | 15 |
| DFS Corporate Services LLC | 105 | $108,000 | 194 |
| Capgemini America Inc | 98 | $132,000 | 165 |
| Deloitte Consulting LLP | 80 | $153,500 | 369 |
| JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 56 | $155,000 | 904 |
| Ernst & Young U.S. LLP | 55 | $173,000 | 45 |
| Amazon Web Services, Inc. | 40 | $166,000 | 3 |
| Caterpillar Inc. | 39 | $144,500 | 63 |
| The Northern Trust Company | 34 | $140,000 | 35 |
| McDonald's Corporation | 32 | $172,000 | 2 |
| Chicago Mercantile Exchange | 30 | $131,000 | 17 |
| Caremark LLC | 26 | $157,000 | 42 |
| Expedia, Inc. | 25 | $130,500 | 153 |
| Compunnel Software Group, Inc | 25 | $110,000 | 401 |
More in Chicago
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 · Operations Research Analysts · Electrical Engineers
Common titles filed under this occupation: Software Engineer, Software Developer, Senior Software Engineer, Software Engineering, Software Dev Engineer Ii, Software Dev Engineer I, Software Development Engineer Ii, Staff Software Engineer.
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.