What US Employers Pay for PERM-Certified Jobs vs Comparable Hiring Costs Abroad
A cross-border employer-cost analysis using US Department of Labor PERM wage disclosures, official international salary surveys, and country-specific payroll calculations.
Samarthya Pandey
A US employer filing a permanent labor certification application for a software developer may report an offered annual wage exceeding $130,000. A Philippine government occupational wage survey, meanwhile, reports average monthly wages of PHP 66,180 for software developers in publishing activities.
The difference is substantial. But comparing those two salary numbers alone would produce an incomplete—and potentially misleading—international hiring-cost estimate.
US PERM disclosures describe specific permanent job opportunities offered by employers. Foreign occupational wage surveys measure compensation received by different populations of workers. Neither figure automatically includes the employer’s full payroll burden.
To calculate comparable employer costs, businesses must account for employer social insurance, mandatory additional compensation, applicable employment taxes, annual contribution ceilings, and jurisdiction-specific obligations.
Ivvora examined two occupation families—software development and office administration—using publicly reported US PERM wages and existing official-source salary benchmarks for the Philippines, Poland, and Brazil.
The findings reveal substantial differences in modeled annual employment costs. They also demonstrate why comparisons must distinguish exact occupation matches from broad occupational proxies and avoid treating historical salaries as current hiring quotations.
The Main Findings
Using the disclosed 2025 PERM offered-wage medians, modeled 2026 employer obligations, and October 16, 2026 exchange rates:
| Occupation or benchmark | Geography | Annual gross salary, USD equivalent | Modeled annual employer cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software developers — PERM median | United States | $136,822 | $171,028 |
| Software developers — publishing industry | Philippines, nationwide | $12,612 | $14,689 |
| Office clerks — PERM median | United States | $35,600 | $44,500 |
| General office clerks | Philippines, Metro Manila | $4,364 | $5,320 |
| Clerical support workers — broad group | Poland, nationwide | $21,612 | $26,038 |
| Administrative services workers — broad group | Brazil, nationwide | $6,473 | $9,767 |
How to read this table: US employer costs use an explicitly assumed 25% total employer burden, not a DOL-reported cost. Philippine costs include modeled employer contributions and 13th-month pay. Polish costs include specified employer statutory contributions. Brazilian costs use an illustrative CLT employer contribution and annual compensation accrual model.
The foreign wage observations were collected in 2024 and published subsequently. They are not measured 2026 hiring offers. The US PERM figures represent certified-case offered-wage medians for fiscal year 2025, as calculated by a third-party aggregator using DOL disclosure records.
The Polish and Brazilian administrative categories are broader than the US and Philippine office-clerk occupations. Their costs are contextual comparisons, not like-for-like salary estimates.
These qualifications matter. Without them, a table of international employment costs can look precise while comparing different jobs, seniority levels, industries, and observation periods.
What PERM Wage Data Actually Measures
The US Department of Labor’s permanent labor certification program, commonly called PERM, supports qualifying employers seeking permanent employment-based immigration sponsorship for foreign workers.
The process involves a permanent, full-time US job opportunity and compliance with applicable recruitment and prevailing-wage requirements.
Employers generally must offer at least the prevailing wage applicable to the occupation and area of intended employment.
However, two different wage fields must be distinguished.
Prevailing wage: The wage determined under the applicable DOL methodology for the particular occupation, geographic location, and job characteristics.
Offered wage: The wage the employer reports it will offer for the permanent job opportunity.
The offered wage can equal or exceed the applicable prevailing wage.
A PERM certification does not establish that an individual is already receiving the disclosed wage, that the job has been filled, or that every certified application resulted in employment.
Nor does a PERM application establish the employer’s total employment cost.
The disclosed salary generally does not reveal its employer health insurance expense, unemployment insurance charges, retirement-plan contributions, equipment costs, immigration legal fees, or other personnel expenses.
For this reason, Ivvora treats PERM wage disclosures as an observable US employer-offer dataset—not as a complete employment-cost dataset.
Official source: US Department of Labor — Prevailing Wages.
What US Employers Report for PERM-Certified Jobs
The Department of Labor publishes downloadable PERM disclosure records and accompanying field definitions.
At the time of this analysis, its public performance page lists complete fiscal-year 2025 disclosures and fiscal-year 2026 disclosures through the third quarter.
The following occupation-level medians are taken from PERM Tracker’s published aggregation of DOL disclosure files. Ivvora has not independently recomputed these medians from the complete original DOL Excel files.
Certified PERM offered wages by occupation
| Occupation | US SOC code | FY2025 certified cases in aggregation | FY2025 median offered wage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software developers | 15-1252.00 | 31,323 | $136,822 |
| Computer programmers | 15-1251.00 | 482 | $96,900 |
| Office clerks, general | 43-9061.00 | 238 | $35,600 |
Sources: PERM Tracker — Software Developers, Computer Programmers, and Office Clerks.
These are medians among certified applications included in the aggregator’s occupational datasets—not national median salaries for everyone employed in these occupations.
They should not be substituted for DOL prevailing-wage determinations.
The software developer wage distribution
For software developers, the FY2025 certified-case wage distribution is:
| Percentile | Annual offered wage |
|---|---|
| 10th | $98,904 |
| 25th | $115,918 |
| 50th — median | $136,822 |
| 75th | $159,333 |
| 90th | $184,662 |
The difference between the 10th and 90th percentiles is $85,758.
This variation demonstrates why using one national figure to represent every PERM-certified software-development position would conceal substantial differences between employers and jobs.
A senior engineer in a high-paying metropolitan market is not directly comparable with an entry-level developer in a lower-cost market.
The same issue becomes even more important when crossing national borders.
US PERM Wages by Worksite Location: Five Actual Case Examples
National occupational aggregates cannot explain every local wage difference.
To show how wages vary geographically, Ivvora identified five individually reported certified PERM applications.
These cases are illustrative, not a statistically representative sample.
| Job title | Worksite city | Certified-case offered wage | PERM case number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office clerk | Orlando, Florida | $26,957 | G-200-24109-900138 |
| Office assistant | Dallas, Texas | $39,000 | G-200-23342-553114 |
| Associate software engineer | Plano, Texas | $134,992 | G-100-23299-459840 |
| Senior software engineer | San Francisco, California | $215,197 | G-100-23348-567582 |
| Software developer | Irving, Texas | $84,094 | G-100-25025-642438 |
The first four cases received decisions during FY2025; the Irving case was reported as certified in FY2026.
The cases can be examined individually through the republished disclosure records for Orlando, Dallas, Plano, San Francisco, and Irving.
These records are reproduced by a third-party service rather than independently extracted here from DOL’s original spreadsheet.
They provide useful case-number traceability but do not replace the underlying DOL records.
Why the geographic differences matter
The Plano application reports an offered salary of $134,992 for an associate software engineer.
The San Francisco application reports $215,197 for a senior software engineer.
The difference is $80,205 annually.
But it would be incorrect to attribute that difference entirely to geography.
The jobs also differ in seniority, employer, job requirements, and potentially other compensation characteristics.
A reliable geographic wage study needs to control for those variables before claiming that one city is intrinsically a particular percentage more expensive than another.
The appropriate unit of analysis is not merely “software engineer.”
It is an occupation mapped to a comparable job description, experience level, location, and compensation definition.
How Ivvora Maps US Occupations to International Salary Benchmarks
Different national statistical systems classify occupations differently.
The United States uses the Standard Occupational Classification system (SOC). The Philippines uses its national occupational classification framework, while Poland’s classifications are aligned with ISCO-derived occupational structures. Brazil’s wage publications use national occupational groupings.
A title match alone is insufficient to establish equivalence.
Ivvora uses the following comparison structure.
| US occupation | International observation | Match quality | Important restriction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software Developers, SOC 15-1252 | Philippine software developers in publishing | Occupation match; sector-specific | Industry and seniority not controlled |
| Computer Programmers, SOC 15-1251 | Philippine applications programmers in information services | Close occupation match | Job duties and industry may differ |
| Office Clerks, General, SOC 43-9061 | Philippine general office clerks | Strong occupation-family match | Population and observation period differ |
| Office Clerks, General, SOC 43-9061 | Polish clerical support workers | Broad proxy | Includes multiple clerical occupations |
| Office Clerks, General, SOC 43-9061 | Brazilian administrative services workers | Broad proxy | Includes multiple administrative occupations |
The analytical rule is straightforward:
A broader occupational group must not be represented as an exact salary benchmark for a narrower job.
This prevents a common international comparison error: matching a precise US occupation with a foreign country’s aggregate occupational salary and presenting the result as an identical-role comparison.
Ivvora’s available salary observations support detailed Philippine examples and broader Polish and Brazilian contextual comparisons.
They do not currently establish verified matching occupation-level salary observations for India and Colombia. Those countries are therefore excluded from the quantitative salary rankings in this study.
Case Study: Software Developer Hiring Costs in the US vs the Philippines
The strongest available technology-role comparison uses US software developers and the Philippine Statistics Authority’s observed software-development wage data.
The salary evidence
For fiscal year 2025, the disclosed US PERM median offered wage for software developers was $136,822.
The Philippine Statistics Authority’s 2024 Occupational Wages Survey reports:
- PHP 66,180 average monthly wage for software developers in publishing activities.
- PHP 73,804 average monthly wage for applications programmers in information service activities.
Both Philippine observations are industry-specific national figures rather than universal salaries for software professionals.
The survey was conducted in August 2024, with results published in November 2025.
The amounts are wage rates, including the survey’s applicable regular cash allowances, rather than necessarily pure basic salaries.
Source: Philippine Statistics Authority — 2024 Occupational Wages Survey.
Ivvora’s Philippine employer-cost assumptions
For illustration, the model assumes:
- The observed monthly wage rate is paid as basic salary.
- The worker is a qualifying rank-and-file employee entitled to 13th-month pay.
- Monthly SSS employer contributions follow the maximum applicable salary-credit rules.
- Employees’ Compensation is added separately.
- PhilHealth uses a 5% premium shared equally by employer and employee.
- Pag-IBIG employer contributions use the standard maximum monthly fund-salary basis.
- The employee works throughout the year.
The assumption that all observed wage-rate income is basic salary matters because survey wage rates can include allowances. Actual 13th-month pay is based on qualifying basic salary, not automatically every cash allowance.
The model excludes employer service fees, recruitment costs, discretionary benefits, and exceptional payroll circumstances.
Monthly employer-cost calculation: software developer
For PHP 66,180 monthly compensation:
| Cost component | Monthly amount |
|---|---|
| Assumed basic salary | PHP 66,180.00 |
| Employer SSS | PHP 3,500.00 |
| Employees’ Compensation | PHP 30.00 |
| Employer PhilHealth | PHP 1,654.50 |
| Employer Pag-IBIG | PHP 200.00 |
| 13th-month accrual | PHP 5,515.00 |
| Modeled monthly employer cost | PHP 77,079.50 |
Annual employer cost:
PHP 77,079.50 × 12 = PHP 924,954
Using the October 16, 2026 reference exchange rates described below, this is approximately $14,689 annually.
The modeled employer cost is approximately 16.47% above 12 months of the assumed basic salary.
The result is a contribution-and-compensation model applied to an observed historical salary benchmark. It is not an actual 2026 employment offer.
Compare with the US PERM software developer median
| Metric | United States | Philippines |
|---|---|---|
| Wage source | FY2025 PERM certified offered-wage median | 2024 PSA occupation-industry average |
| Annual base compensation | $136,822 | $12,612 equivalent |
| Employer-cost treatment | Assumed 25% overall load | Specified statutory items and 13th-month accrual |
| Modeled annual employer cost | $171,028 | $14,689 |
The modeled US cost is approximately 11.6 times the Philippine cost in this example.
This is an observation about the selected datasets and assumptions—not proof that an identical worker with identical experience, skills, productivity, and responsibilities would cost 11.6 times more in the United States.
The US benchmark is a median of certified immigration-related job offers. The Philippine benchmark is an industry-specific occupational average from an earlier year.
The populations are not equivalent.
A second Philippine technology benchmark
The PSA also reports PHP 73,804 monthly for applications programmers in information service activities.
Using the same illustrative Philippine payroll rules and assuming that all compensation is qualifying basic salary:
| Cost component | Monthly PHP |
|---|---|
| Gross salary | 73,804.00 |
| Employer SSS and EC | 3,530.00 |
| Employer PhilHealth | 1,845.10 |
| Employer Pag-IBIG | 200.00 |
| 13th-month accrual | 6,150.33 |
| Modeled monthly employer cost | 85,529.43 |
Annualized using unrounded accruals, the modeled cost is PHP 1,026,353.20, or approximately $16,300.
This observation is more appropriately mapped to applications or computer-programming work than automatically treated as an interchangeable software-developer salary.
The difference between the two Philippine observations also demonstrates why occupation and industry selection matters even within the same country.
Case Study: General Office Clerks in the US and Metro Manila
The 2025 US PERM-certified median offered wage for general office clerks was $35,600.
The Philippine Statistics Authority reported an average monthly wage rate of PHP 22,903 for general office clerks in the National Capital Region (Metro Manila).
The latter is a location-specific occupational observation and offers a stronger comparison than using the entire national office-administration category.
Philippine employer cost
Under the stated model:
| Component | Monthly PHP |
|---|---|
| Assumed basic salary | 22,903.00 |
| Employer SSS | 2,300.00 |
| Employees’ Compensation | 30.00 |
| Employer PhilHealth | 572.58 |
| Employer Pag-IBIG | 200.00 |
| 13th-month accrual | 1,908.58 |
| Modeled monthly cost | 27,914.16 |
The precise annual calculation, before monthly display rounding, gives:
PHP 334,969.90 per year
Converted using the specified reference rates:
Approximately $5,320 annually.
The modeled annual employer cost is approximately 21.88% above 12 months of the assumed basic salary.
US office clerk employer cost
Using the FY2025 PERM median offered wage of $35,600:
Employer Social Security and Medicare contributions at a combined 7.65% would equal $2,723.40, under the ordinary wage-base assumptions.
This results in salary plus employer FICA of $38,323.40.
However, that is not a complete US employer budget. State unemployment insurance, federal unemployment taxes, insurance benefits, and other expenses may also apply.
For an illustrative fully burdened planning scenario, Ivvora uses a 25% total employer load.
$35,600 × 1.25 = $44,500
Office clerk comparison
| Metric | US PERM benchmark | Metro Manila benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Annual salary | $35,600 | $4,364 equivalent |
| Modeled annual employer cost | $44,500 | $5,320 |
| Effective assumed employer cost above salary | 25% | 21.88% |
The modeled US budget is approximately 8.4 times the Philippine budget.
Again, this is a comparison between distinct observed worker populations—not a controlled estimate of the savings from transferring the same job overseas.
It also does not establish that US employers can lawfully relocate a particular PERM-sponsored position and preserve the original immigration arrangement.
The PERM application concerns a US job opportunity. International hiring would be a separate workforce decision involving different employment and immigration considerations.
Poland: What an Official Clerical Wage Benchmark Costs an Employer
Poland’s Statistics Office publishes occupational earnings data that can support employer-cost modeling.
Ivvora’s available benchmark dataset includes average monthly gross remuneration of PLN 6,993.97 for the broad clerical-support occupational group in October 2024.
This is not an exact occupation match for US general office clerks, nor a Warsaw-only salary figure.
It is a nationwide occupational-group observation.
Source: Statistics Poland — Structure of Wages and Salaries by Occupation for October 2024.
Employer contribution model
Ivvora applies the following illustrative standard employer rates:
| Employer contribution | Rate |
|---|---|
| Pension insurance | 9.76% |
| Disability insurance | 6.50% |
| Accident insurance | 1.67% assumed |
| Labour Fund and Solidarity Fund | 2.45% combined |
| FGŚP | 0.10% |
| Total modeled employer contribution rate | 20.48% |
The accident insurance rate can differ by employer. Certain statutory funds are also subject to eligibility and exemption rules.
This salary remains below Poland’s 2026 annual pension and disability contribution-base ceiling of PLN 282,600.
Therefore, the model does not encounter the 30× ZUS contribution cap.
Annual employer-cost calculation
Annual gross compensation:
PLN 6,993.97 × 12 = PLN 83,927.64
Employer contributions:
PLN 83,927.64 × 20.48% = approximately PLN 17,188.38
Annual employer cost: PLN 101,116.02
Using the October 16, 2026 exchange rate, this equals approximately $26,038.
The amount excludes PPK employer contributions. For an employee participating under a standard 1.5% employer PPK contribution, an additional approximately PLN 1,258.91 would be required annually under the stated constant-salary assumption.
Other benefits, payroll services, occupational health costs, and employer-specific arrangements are also excluded.
What this comparison establishes
The Poland benchmark is more expensive in US-dollar terms than the Metro Manila general office-clerk benchmark.
However, Poland’s reported group is substantially broader than the Philippine occupation.
A legitimate conclusion is that the official observations produce different modeled costs.
A legitimate conclusion is not that every Polish office clerk is approximately five times more expensive than every Philippine office clerk.
That stronger assertion would require a more precise occupational and experience-level match.
Brazil: Why Gross Salary Alone Understates CLT Employment Costs
Brazil provides a different employer-cost problem.
An official wage observation can be relatively low while the employer’s annual statutory obligations add materially to the underlying salary.
Ivvora’s existing Brazilian salary dataset includes an average monthly remuneration observation of BRL 2,741.73 for administrative services workers.
The figure comes from Brazil’s 2025 Relatório Anual Socioeconômico da Mulher (RASEAM), using Ministry of Labour and Employment salary-transparency data.
The published table concerns formal employment data from the first half of 2024, with underlying reporting limitations.
In particular, the relevant data cover establishments with at least 100 employees, subject to the publication’s reporting filters.
The observation is therefore not a representative 2026 salary quotation for every Brazilian administrative worker.
Source: Brazilian Ministry of Women — RASEAM 2025.
A modeled standard CLT employer burden
For illustration, consider a non-Simples employer subject to the following contribution assumptions:
| Employer obligation | Assumed rate |
|---|---|
| Employer INSS contribution | 20.0% |
| Workplace accident risk contribution (RAT) | 2.0% |
| Third-party contributions | 5.8% |
| FGTS | 8.0% |
| Combined modeled contribution rate | 35.8% |
Actual RAT/FAP rates, third-party contributions, payroll-tax substitution regimes, employer classifications, and exemptions may change these amounts.
The model also allows for one additional 13th-month salary and the constitutional one-third vacation premium.
The normal remuneration for vacation is already represented within the 12 monthly salaries; it is not counted as a separate additional full month’s remuneration.
Annual compensation calculation
Monthly remuneration assumption:
BRL 2,741.73
Twelve months:
BRL 32,900.76
13th-month provision:
BRL 2,741.73
One-third vacation premium provision:
BRL 913.91
Total modeled annual remuneration and mandatory compensation provision:
BRL 36,556.40
Applying the illustrative 35.8% contribution burden to the modeled applicable compensation base produces an additional approximately BRL 13,087.19.
Modeled annual employer cost: BRL 49,643.59
Using the specified October 16, 2026 reference exchange rates:
Approximately $9,767 annually.
This is an illustrative annualized employment-cost model, not a legally universal Brazilian employer-cost multiplier.
It assumes the reported wage can be treated as ordinary monthly salary for modeling and that the stated contribution percentages apply to the entire modeled base.
Actual payroll records can require different assessment bases, timing, accrual treatment, and employer-specific rules.
The model also excludes termination-related FGTS penalties, employer benefits, replacement leave coverage, collective agreement obligations, and EOR or payroll administration fees.
Why Brazil cannot be compared through a single percentage
Brazil’s effective employer cost varies according to several factors, including tax regime, industry classification, workplace accident risk, payroll-tax relief, collective bargaining arrangements, and statutory compensation provisions.
A universal claim such as “Brazil employer cost always equals salary plus 40%” is not defensible.
For business decisions, the employer should calculate each statutory component against the correct base rather than apply one generic percentage.
This is particularly important when comparing Brazil with Poland, where pension and disability contribution ceilings affect higher-paid workers, or the Philippines, where social insurance and housing-fund contributions have their own salary-credit ceilings.
The Cross-Border Cost Comparison
The following table consolidates the modeled costs without treating every occupational observation as an identical role.
| Benchmark | Data period | Annual salary in local currency | Modeled annual employer cost, local | USD equivalent employer cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US PERM software developers | FY2025 | USD 136,822 | USD 171,028 | $171,028 |
| Philippine software developers, publishing | Aug. 2024 | PHP 794,160 | PHP 924,954 | $14,689 |
| US PERM office clerks | FY2025 | USD 35,600 | USD 44,500 | $44,500 |
| Philippine general office clerks, NCR | Aug. 2024 | PHP 274,836 | PHP 334,970 | $5,320 |
| Polish clerical support | Oct. 2024 | PLN 83,928 | PLN 101,116 | $26,038 |
| Brazilian administrative services | First half 2024 | BRL 32,901 | BRL 49,644 | $9,767 |
Local annual salary and cost amounts are rounded for presentation.
All models use disclosed or stated payroll assumptions. The figures are not a harmonized survey of realized 2026 employer expenditures.
The foreign observations are historical; their 2026 labor-market equivalents may be higher or lower.
What the comparison actually reveals
Three conclusions are supported.
First, selected Philippine occupational wages produce substantially lower modeled nominal employer costs than the US certified PERM offered-wage medians examined here.
Second, employer statutory obligations materially change the total above basic salary. The size and composition of that burden differ between countries.
Third, a meaningful comparison requires matching the occupation and compensation components. Without that, the numerical difference can be larger or smaller simply because the underlying datasets describe different populations.
The results do not establish equivalent productivity, service quality, employee seniority, employer operating model, or full economic return.
Why the US Employer Cost Is Modeled at 25%
DOL’s PERM records do not publish a standardized fully loaded employer cost.
The underlying employer expense depends on statutory payroll taxes, state-specific obligations, employee benefits, insurance coverage, and organizational policies.
For 2026, the ordinary federal employer Social Security rate is 6.2% on wages up to the $184,500 wage base.
The ordinary employer Medicare rate is 1.45%, with no wage ceiling.
That creates a combined employer FICA rate of 7.65% for earnings within the Social Security wage base.
Sources: IRS — Social Security and Medicare Tax Rates and IRS Publication 15.
US software developer cost layers
For the $136,822 PERM median:
| Cost component | Annual USD |
|---|---|
| Reported median offered wage | 136,822.00 |
| Employer Social Security, 6.2% | 8,483.00 |
| Employer Medicare, 1.45% | 1,983.88 |
| Salary plus employer FICA | 147,288.88 |
| Additional allowance to reach 25% total load | 23,738.62 |
| Illustrative fully burdened budget | 171,027.50 |
The additional allowance is a planning assumption, not an independently measured employer cost.
It represents the remaining budget for other employer obligations and benefits after the modeled FICA amount.
It is not intended as a legal percentage for unemployment insurance or any specific benefit.
For wages exceeding the 2026 Social Security wage base, employer FICA must be calculated with the applicable ceiling rather than simply applying 7.65% to the entire salary.
Why the distinction matters
A company comparing US salary plus 25% with a foreign salary plus only pension contributions would not be using equivalent cost scopes.
Likewise, applying a universal 25% multiplier to Poland, the Philippines, or Brazil would conceal the different statutory structures.
The appropriate comparison should preserve the actual rules of each jurisdiction while reporting the employer-cost categories included and excluded.
Exchange-Rate Methodology: October 16, 2026
International compensation comparisons can change significantly with foreign exchange movements.
Ivvora uses the European Central Bank’s reference exchange rates dated October 16, 2026.
The ECB published the following quotations against the euro:
| Currency | Units per EUR |
|---|---|
| USD | 1.1253 |
| PLN | 4.3700 |
| BRL | 5.7197 |
| PHP | 70.8580 |
These imply approximately:
| Currency | Local currency per USD |
|---|---|
| PLN | 3.8834 |
| BRL | 5.0828 |
| PHP | 62.9681 |
The calculation is:
Local currency per USD = Local currency per EUR ÷ USD per EUR
For example:
PHP 70.858 ÷ 1.1253 = approximately PHP 62.9681 per USD.
The Philippine software developer’s annual modeled cost is therefore:
PHP 924,954 ÷ 62.9681 = approximately $14,689.
Source: European Central Bank — Euro Foreign Exchange Reference Rates.
These are reference rates, not guaranteed commercial conversion rates.
Actual international payment costs may include bank spreads, transfer fees, timing differences, and foreign exchange hedging expenses.
The study applies one FX observation date consistently to historical wage-based cost models. It does not claim those exchange rates were available when the underlying wage surveys were conducted.
How Sensitive Are These Results to Salary Changes?
The salary benchmarks are observations, not fixed quotations.
Employers should test how the modeled cost changes when the actual offered salary differs from the historical average.
For example, consider the Philippine software developer benchmark of PHP 66,180 monthly.
Holding the modeled employer contribution rules and exchange rate constant:
| Assumed monthly salary | Salary change | Modeled annual employer cost, USD |
|---|---|---|
| PHP 52,944 | 20% below benchmark | $11,894 |
| PHP 66,180 | Baseline | $14,689 |
| PHP 79,416 | 20% above benchmark | $17,485 |
The relationship is not perfectly proportional because several Philippine contributions are capped.
In this salary range, employer SSS and Pag-IBIG charges have already reached their applicable modeled ceilings.
PhilHealth and 13th-month accruals continue changing with the assumed salary.
This illustrates why applying a fixed employer-load percentage to every salary can produce errors.
The exchange-rate sensitivity problem
If the local-currency employer cost stays constant but the Philippine peso strengthens against the dollar, the US-dollar cost rises.
A 10% movement in the number of pesos received per dollar can materially change the translated annual budget.
For example, at approximately PHP 62.968 per USD, the annual PHP 924,954 cost equals $14,689.
If the exchange rate were PHP 57 per USD, it would equal approximately $16,227.
At PHP 69 per USD, it would equal approximately $13,405.
These alternative exchange rates are illustrative stress tests, not forecasts.
They demonstrate that salary comparison and foreign exchange exposure should be treated as separate budget variables.
PERM Prevailing Wage vs Actual US Hiring Cost: Five Important Differences
A prevailing wage is a legal wage floor
The applicable PERM prevailing wage is not a national occupation average.
It is determined for the job opportunity using the relevant occupational classification, area of intended employment, and other applicable factors.
A software developer working in one US metropolitan area can have a different prevailing-wage determination from a software developer working in another.
A PERM offered wage is not total compensation
The disclosed wage should not be automatically treated as including bonuses, equity, employer health insurance contributions, retirement benefits, or other compensation.
Those items may be relevant to the overall hiring budget but are not necessarily contained in the published wage field.
Certification does not establish realized employment cost
A certification identifies the result of the labor certification process.
It does not independently verify the entire subsequent employment history, actual payroll disbursements, or all employer costs.
PERM applicants are not the entire US labor market
PERM-certified jobs are a selected subset of employment opportunities associated with permanent immigration sponsorship.
They should not be treated as an unbiased statistical sample of all US employers or workers.
For wider market wage comparisons, Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics can provide a separate perspective.
For example, BLS reported an annual mean wage of $143,630 for software developers in the Austin metropolitan area in May 2025.
That is an occupational survey mean, not a PERM offered-wage median or an individual prevailing-wage determination.
Source: BLS — Occupational Employment and Wages, Austin, May 2025.
International hiring is not a substitute for PERM compliance
A US company may investigate employing people in other countries, but moving a function overseas is not the same as sponsoring a worker for a permanent US position.
Different legal, operational, tax, employment, and data-protection obligations apply.
The comparisons in this study are workforce-planning scenarios, not alternatives for satisfying a particular PERM application’s requirements.
How Employers Should Build a Defensible Global Hiring-Cost Comparison
The most reliable analysis starts with an explicitly defined role, not with the country.
Before comparing a US job against a foreign benchmark, the employer should establish the occupation, actual duties, required skills, experience level, seniority, work arrangement, and geographic market.
Next, the salary source must be documented.
A median from a certified PERM dataset should not be labeled as an ordinary market wage. A broad occupational-group average should not be described as a specific job’s salary.
Then the employer should construct a local payroll-cost schedule.
For each jurisdiction, that means establishing:
- Gross contractual compensation and guaranteed additional salary payments.
- Employer social insurance contributions and annual caps.
- Mandatory benefit accruals, additional salary, or statutory fund contributions.
- Payroll-specific exemptions and employer classification rules.
- Administration, service-provider, insurance, and other employer expenses.
- Exchange-rate assumptions and payment timing.
- Annual cost sensitivity under alternative salary and FX scenarios.
Finally, the resulting comparison should report which figures are observations, which are statutory calculations, and which are planning assumptions.
That distinction is more important than presenting a single precise-looking savings percentage.
Data Limitations and Comparability Audit
The following limitations determine how the study should be interpreted.
| Dimension | Limitation | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| US PERM data | Selected immigration-related certified applications | Not a representative sample of all US employment |
| US salary measure | Offered wage rather than observed total employer expenditure | Requires separate employer-cost modeling |
| US occupation medians | Published third-party aggregation | Not independently recomputed from all original DOL rows in this study |
| US worksite cases | Individual certified applications | Illustrative; not local wage medians |
| Philippine salary data | August 2024 occupational survey | Not a 2026 hiring quotation |
| Philippine industry coverage | Technology wages reported for specified industries | Does not represent all software employers |
| Polish occupation data | Broad nationwide clerical-support group | Not an exact general office-clerk match |
| Brazilian occupation data | Broad group and restricted employer population | Not an exact office-clerk match or universal employer salary |
| Payroll calculations | Modeled statutory rates and assumptions | Not an audited actual-employer expense record |
| FX conversion | Single October 2026 reference date | Actual transaction rates may differ |
| India and Colombia | No verified matched wage observation included | Excluded from quantitative conclusions |
| Seniority | Not harmonized across every salary source | Differences cannot be attributed solely to location |
These are not minor footnotes.
They explain exactly which conclusions the data can support.
A lower observed average wage in one country is evidence of a wage difference between measured groups.
It is not sufficient evidence that the same worker, carrying out the same role to the same standard, can be employed there at precisely that cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average salary for a PERM-certified software developer?
In the FY2025 certified-case aggregation examined by Ivvora, the median offered wage for software developers was $136,822 annually.
That is not the same as the average wage of all US software developers or the prevailing wage for every PERM position.
Are PERM wages actual salaries paid to employees?
Not necessarily. PERM disclosures report wages associated with particular permanent labor certification applications. The offered wage is a commitment associated with the job opportunity, not a complete payroll history.
Is the PERM prevailing wage the same everywhere in the United States?
No. Prevailing-wage determinations account for the relevant occupation and area of intended employment, among other applicable factors.
How much does it cost to employ a software developer in the Philippines?
Using the PSA’s PHP 66,180 monthly software-developer wage observation and Ivvora’s stated 2026 statutory assumptions, the modeled annual employer cost is approximately PHP 924,954, or $14,689 at the specified exchange rate.
The result is not a universal salary quote for Philippine software developers.
Why is the employer cost higher than basic salary?
Employers may be responsible for additional payroll contributions, mandatory compensation, insurance, benefit accruals, or other employment-related obligations.
The applicable items and ceilings vary by country.
Is Poland cheaper than the United States for office administration?
The historical broad clerical-support benchmark used here produces a lower modeled annual employer cost than the US PERM general office-clerk benchmark.
However, the occupational groups and worker populations are not sufficiently matched to support a precise equal-role savings estimate.
Why are India and Colombia missing from the numerical comparison?
The existing Ivvora salary observations used for this analysis do not supply verified, sufficiently matched occupation-level salary benchmarks for those countries.
Their payroll regimes can be modeled, but adding hypothetical salaries would create a misleading comparison with observed US and foreign wage data.
Can employers use PERM wage data for international hiring budgets?
Yes, as one input to understanding US employer-offer expectations.
However, PERM records should be combined with broader labor-market data, properly mapped international salary observations, and jurisdiction-specific cost calculations.
PERM wage disclosures alone do not identify the cost of employing comparable workers overseas.
Conclusion: Global Hiring Cost Is Not Just a Salary Comparison
The available data demonstrate meaningful differences between US PERM-certified offered wages and selected international occupational earnings.
In the software-developer example, the FY2025 US PERM median offered wage of $136,822 generates a modeled US annual employer budget of approximately $171,028 under Ivvora’s assumed 25% overall load.
The Philippine software-developer wage observation produces a modeled annual employer cost of approximately $14,689 under the specified Philippine payroll assumptions.
For office administration, the US certified-case median of $35,600 generates a modeled employer budget of $44,500.
The corresponding Metro Manila general office-clerk observation produces a modeled cost of approximately $5,320.
Official broad-category benchmarks from Poland and Brazil illustrate additional differences in nominal compensation and employer obligations, but should not be mistaken for exact occupation-equivalent hiring quotes.
The central finding is that international employer costs must be built from three independently verified elements: the occupation being hired, the relevant local salary observation, and the employer’s actual statutory and contractual obligations.
A comparison that fails any one of those elements may produce an attractive number without a defensible underlying explanation.
For companies planning international hiring, the most useful output is therefore not a headline claiming that one country is a certain percentage cheaper.
It is a transparent, reproducible employment-cost model showing what is measured, what is assumed, what the employer must pay, and where uncertainty remains.
Sources and Reproducibility Notes
1. US Department of Labor — OFLC Performance Data
Primary source for PERM disclosure files, historical program records, and associated record layouts. The published files include FY2025 PERM disclosures and FY2026 data through the third quarter.
2. US Department of Labor — Prevailing Wages
Primary authority for the role of prevailing wages and area-of-intended-employment wage determinations.
3. PERM Tracker — Software Developers
Third-party aggregation of DOL PERM disclosures, including certified offered-wage distributions by fiscal year and state.
4. PERM Tracker — Office Clerks, General
Third-party occupation-level aggregation of certified PERM offered wages.
5. Philippine Statistics Authority — 2024 Occupational Wages Survey
Official published occupation, industry, and regional wage observations used for Philippine salary benchmarks.
6. Philippine Social Security System — Contribution Schedules
Official SSS rules, including the employer’s 10% contribution share under the 2025 schedule and the PHP 35,000 maximum monthly salary credit.
7. Philippine Information Agency — 2026 PhilHealth Premium
Government report confirming the 5% PhilHealth premium rate and employer/employee sharing for 2026.
8. Philippine Department of Labor and Employment — 13th-Month Pay
Government guidance explaining statutory 13th-month compensation and its basic-salary calculation.
9. Statistics Poland — Occupational Earnings
Official October 2024 occupational wage publication and downloadable statistical tables.
10. ZUS — Social Insurance Contributions
Official pension, disability, and accident contribution information for Poland.
11. Brazilian Ministry of Women — RASEAM 2025
Official wage and remuneration reporting, including administrative occupational-group data.
https://www.gov.br/mulheres/pt-br/central-de-conteudos/publicacoes/raseam-2025.pdf
12. US Internal Revenue Service — Publication 15
Official 2026 employer Social Security and Medicare contribution rules.
13. European Central Bank — Foreign Exchange Reference Rates
Primary FX source for the October 16, 2026 reference rates used in US-dollar conversion.
Ivvora’s calculation definitions
Observed salary: Compensation figure obtained from a named labor-market or official wage-disclosure source.
Statutory employer cost: Observed or assumed salary plus the specified employer-funded contributions and mandatory compensation items under the applicable modeled rules.
Planning employer cost: Statutory cost plus additional estimated employer expenses, where explicitly stated.
Occupation match: A documented relationship between source occupation classifications. Broad matches are flagged and must not be treated as equivalent occupations.
Exchange-rate conversion: Local-currency annual employer cost divided by the local-currency-per-US-dollar reference rate on the declared date.
Rounding: Individual monthly line items may be displayed to two decimals. Annual totals are calculated using unrounded intermediate values where necessary before final presentation rounding.
Research status
This article combines verified official labor-market observations, publicly accessible third-party PERM case aggregations, and original illustrative employer-cost calculations.
It is not an independent record-level reanalysis of the complete DOL PERM disclosure files. Therefore, no newly calculated city-level PERM medians, sample-wide prevailing-wage distributions, or verified five-country equal-role salary rankings are claimed.
All illustrated international annual costs are conditional on the published salary observations and specified statutory modeling assumptions.
Ivvora | Global Hiring Cost Research | October 2026
Ivvora provides research and planning information. Country-specific legal, employment, tax and payroll decisions should be reviewed against current requirements and the facts of the individual case.
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