H-1B wage filings, July 2025 to June 2026

Data Engineer vs Data Analyst Salary: Engineers Get $28,500 More

The data engineer vs data analyst salary gap is $28,500 a year at the median, or 29.5%: $125,000 for data engineers against $96,500 for data analysts, across 13,211 certified H-1B wage filings decided July 2025 to June 2026 (newest DOL file, checked November 12, 2026). Matched on employer and wage level, the premium is 11%.

Data engineer, median offer$125,000

8,904 filings, 2,988 employers. 35% at wage Level III or IV.

Data analyst, median offer$96,500

4,307 filings, 2,268 employers. 21% at wage Level III or IV.

Balance in the engineer’s favor: +$28,500 (29.5%) raw, +11.3% at the same employer and level

Key findings

  • Median offered base wage: data engineer $125,000 (8,904 filings), data analyst $96,500 (4,307 filings), a gap of $28,500 or 29.5%.
  • At entry level (DOL wage Level I) the gap is $17,000: $95,000 vs $78,000.
  • Part of the raw gap is job mix: 35% of data engineer filings sit at the two upper wage levels against 21% of data analyst filings. Inside the same wage level the premium falls to 19.7%.
  • Inside the same employer and wage level the premium is 11.3% (95% interval 9.5% to 13.3%), measured on 3,736 filings at 434 employers that filed for both titles.
  • Of 42 employers with at least five filings for each title, 34 offered data engineers the higher median and 7 offered data analysts the higher median.
  • A senior data analyst’s median offer ($107,000) is below that of a data engineer with no seniority word in the title ($111,864).
  • 15 data engineer filings offered $300,000 or more in base wage; no data analyst filing did.

The head-to-head ledger

Each line below sets the two titles against each other on the same slice of filings. All figures are the base wage the employer put on a certified, full-time H-1B Labor Condition Application, annualized, with decisions dated July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. The gap column is the data engineer figure minus the data analyst figure.

The ledger: data engineer vs data analyst offered base wage, H-1B filings decided July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Small figures are filing counts.
Line Data engineer Data analyst Gap ($) Gap (%)
Distribution
10th percentile $90,236 $73,000 +$17,236 +23.6%
25th percentile $103,210 $82,919 +$20,291 +24.5%
Median $125,0008,904 $96,5004,307 +$28,500 +29.5%
75th percentile $151,281 $115,939 +$35,342 +30.5%
90th percentile $181,000 $140,060 +$40,940 +29.2%
By DOL wage level (the experience proxy)
Level I (entry) $95,0001,184 $78,0001,132 +$17,000 +21.8%
Level II (qualified) $112,9234,020 $96,9281,825 +$15,995 +16.5%
Level III (experienced) $139,1521,704 $120,000622 +$19,152 +16.0%
Level IV (fully competent) $163,3421,396 $144,914263 +$18,428 +12.7%
By seniority word in the job title
Associate $106,17351 $78,54124 +$27,632 +35.2%
No seniority word $111,8644,949 $93,4542,686 +$18,410 +19.7%
Senior $139,1521,880 $107,0001,046 +$32,152 +30.0%
Lead $150,422316 $130,00083 +$20,422 +15.7%
Principal $152,485281 $112,904133 +$39,581 +35.1%
Staff $170,000221 $177,78433 -$7,784 -4.4%

The gap is not constant down the distribution. It is $17,236 at the 10th percentile and $40,940 at the 90th, so the top of the data engineer range pulls further away than the bottom. Data engineers also file at higher levels: 13% of their filings are Level I against 26% for data analysts.

$50K$80K$110K$140K$170K$200K$230KData engineerData engineer: 25th $103,210, median $125,000, 75th $151,281P10 $90KP90 $181K$125KData analystData analyst: 25th $82,919, median $96,500, 75th $115,939P10 $73KP90 $140K$96K
Offered wage spread for each title, year ending June 2026. Line: 10th to 90th percentile. Box: 25th to 75th. Thick tick: median.

What pays more, a data engineer or a data analyst?

A data engineer, on every basis we tested. The size of the answer depends on what you hold equal. The unadjusted premium, measured on log wages so it can be compared with the adjusted lines, is 27.3%. Holding the DOL wage level fixed cuts it to 19.7%, because data engineer filings sit higher on the ladder. Holding the employer fixed cuts it to 15.5%. Holding employer, level and metro fixed leaves 10.2% on 1,421 filings at 194 employers, still well clear of zero.

Adjusted lines: the data engineer premium when both titles are compared inside the same cells. Gap in percent of the data analyst wage, from log wages; 95% intervals clustered by employer.
Comparison basis Premium 95% interval Filings used Employers
All filings, no adjustment +27.3% +22.0% to +32.8% 13,211 4,655
Same wage level +19.7% +14.1% to +25.5% 13,211 4,655
Same metro area +23.6% +21.1% to +26.2% 12,936 4,544
Same wage level and metro +15.2% +13.1% to +17.2% 12,437 4,346
Same employer +15.5% +12.8% to +18.2% 5,156 601
Same employer and wage level +11.3% +9.5% to +13.3% 3,736 434
Same employer, level and metro +10.2% +8.1% to +12.4% 1,421 194
+0%+5%+10%+15%+20%+25%+30%All filings, no adjustmentAll filings, no adjustment: +27.3% (95% CI +22.0% to +32.8%), 13,211 filings+27.3%Same wage levelSame wage level: +19.7% (95% CI +14.1% to +25.5%), 13,211 filings+19.7%Same metro areaSame metro area: +23.6% (95% CI +21.1% to +26.2%), 12,936 filings+23.6%Same wage level and metroSame wage level and metro: +15.2% (95% CI +13.1% to +17.2%), 12,437 filings+15.2%Same employerSame employer: +15.5% (95% CI +12.8% to +18.2%), 5,156 filings+15.5%Same employer and wage levelSame employer and wage level: +11.3% (95% CI +9.5% to +13.3%), 3,736 filings+11.3%Same employer, level and metroSame employer, level and metro: +10.2% (95% CI +8.1% to +12.4%), 1,421 filings+10.2%
Data engineer premium over data analysts under each comparison basis, with 95% intervals (thin line). Year ending June 2026.

Where both titles share an employer, the engineer usually wins: of 42 employers with at least five filings for each title, 34 offered data engineers the higher median, 7 offered data analysts the higher median and 1 tied. The median employer-level gap was $18,437.

Data engineer vs data analyst salary by experience

LCA filings carry no years-of-experience field. The closest proxy is the DOL prevailing wage level the employer assigns to the job, from Level I (entry) to Level IV (fully competent), defined in DOL’s 2009 prevailing wage guidance. The engineer premium holds at every level and narrows in percent terms as level rises: $17,000 (22%) at Level I, $18,428 (13%) at Level IV. For the full level-by-level and title-word breakdown of the engineer side alone, see our data engineer salary by experience analysis, which uses the same title rule and window.

Data analyst medianData engineer medianGap$60K$80K$100K$120K$140K$160K$180KLevel I entryLevel I entry data analyst: $78,000 (1,132 filings)Level I entry data engineer: $95,000 (1,184 filings)+$17K (+22%)Level IILevel II data analyst: $96,928 (1,825 filings)Level II data engineer: $112,923 (4,020 filings)+$16K (+17%)Level IIILevel III data analyst: $120,000 (622 filings)Level III data engineer: $139,152 (1,704 filings)+$19K (+16%)Level IVLevel IV data analyst: $144,914 (263 filings)Level IV data engineer: $163,342 (1,396 filings)+$18K (+13%)
Median offered wage at each DOL wage level. Filings with no level (600 data engineer, 465 data analyst) are left out of this chart.

Title words tell the same story from the employer’s side. A filing titled senior data analyst has a median of $107,000 (1,046 filings), below the $111,864 median for data engineer titles with no seniority word at all (4,949 filings). Principal titles show the widest dollar gap among title words: $152,485 for principal data engineers against $112,904 for principal data analysts. DOL’s own guidance names words such as lead and senior in a title as indicators of a Level III wage. Staff titles are the exception, with only 33 data analyst filings: $177,784 vs $170,000 for 221 staff data engineers.

Data analyst medianData engineer medianGap$60K$80K$100K$120K$140K$160K$180KAssociateAssociate data analyst: $78,541 (24 filings)Associate data engineer: $106,173 (51 filings)+$28K (+35%)No seniority wordNo seniority word data analyst: $93,454 (2,686 filings)No seniority word data engineer: $111,864 (4,949 filings)+$18K (+20%)SeniorSenior data analyst: $107,000 (1,046 filings)Senior data engineer: $139,152 (1,880 filings)+$32K (+30%)LeadLead data analyst: $130,000 (83 filings)Lead data engineer: $150,422 (316 filings)+$20K (+16%)PrincipalPrincipal data analyst: $112,904 (133 filings)Principal data engineer: $152,485 (281 filings)+$40K (+35%)
Median offered wage by seniority word in the filed job title (groups with at least 20 filings per title). Staff is left out of the chart because only 33 data analyst filings use it.

Data engineer vs data analyst salary for freshers

At Level I the medians are $95,000 for data engineers (1,184 filings) and $78,000 for data analysts (1,132 filings). Matched within the same employer at Level I, the premium is 11.2% on 498 filings. In the year ending June 2022 the Level I medians were $85,000 and $72,384.

Data engineer vs data analyst salary by state

The data engineer median is higher in every one of the 37 states and the District of Columbia with at least 10 filings for each title. Texas has the most filings and a $17,513 gap ($113,547 vs $96,034). California has the highest data engineer median of the large states at $170,000, $46,469 above its data analyst median. Among states with at least 40 data analyst filings, the widest gap is in California ($46,469) and the narrowest in New Jersey ($8,611). Virginia is the one large state where data analyst filings (424) outnumber data engineer filings (291).

Data engineer median$125,000
Data analyst median$96,500
Gap+$28,500
Gap %+29.5%

8,904 data engineer and 4,307 data analyst filings nationwide.

Data analyst medianData engineer medianGap$70K$90K$110K$130K$150K$170KTexasTexas data analyst: $96,034 (704 filings)Texas data engineer: $113,547 (2,234 filings)+$18K (+18%)CaliforniaCalifornia data analyst: $123,531 (537 filings)California data engineer: $170,000 (1,102 filings)+$46K (+38%)WashingtonWashington data analyst: $115,085 (126 filings)Washington data engineer: $155,000 (682 filings)+$40K (+35%)VirginiaVirginia data analyst: $94,300 (424 filings)Virginia data engineer: $120,000 (291 filings)+$26K (+27%)North CarolinaNorth Carolina data analyst: $105,747 (124 filings)North Carolina data engineer: $121,263 (539 filings)+$16K (+15%)New YorkNew York data analyst: $106,000 (295 filings)New York data engineer: $145,450 (364 filings)+$39K (+37%)New JerseyNew Jersey data analyst: $109,491 (229 filings)New Jersey data engineer: $118,102 (412 filings)+$9K (+8%)IllinoisIllinois data analyst: $96,928 (233 filings)Illinois data engineer: $120,779 (364 filings)+$24K (+25%)GeorgiaGeorgia data analyst: $93,974 (168 filings)Georgia data engineer: $117,440 (353 filings)+$23K (+25%)FloridaFlorida data analyst: $91,500 (147 filings)Florida data engineer: $111,613 (255 filings)+$20K (+22%)MassachusettsMassachusetts data analyst: $100,200 (139 filings)Massachusetts data engineer: $132,000 (232 filings)+$32K (+32%)PennsylvaniaPennsylvania data analyst: $93,834 (164 filings)Pennsylvania data engineer: $110,000 (198 filings)+$16K (+17%)
Median offered wage in the 12 states with the most filings for the two titles combined, year ending June 2026.
Every state with at least 10 filings for each title, year ending June 2026, ordered by total filings. Same-level premium compares the two titles inside each DOL wage level.
State Data engineer median Filings Data analyst median Filings Gap Gap % Same-level premium
Texas $113,547 2,234 $96,034 704 +$17,513 +18% +13%
California $170,000 1,102 $123,531 537 +$46,469 +38% +27%
Washington $155,000 682 $115,085 126 +$39,915 +35% +28%
Virginia $120,000 291 $94,300 424 +$25,700 +27% +16%
North Carolina $121,263 539 $105,747 124 +$15,516 +15% +11%
New York $145,450 364 $106,000 295 +$39,450 +37% +26%
New Jersey $118,102 412 $109,491 229 +$8,611 +8% +12%
Illinois $120,779 364 $96,928 233 +$23,851 +25% +14%
Georgia $117,440 353 $93,974 168 +$23,466 +25% +18%
Florida $111,613 255 $91,500 147 +$20,113 +22% +15%
Massachusetts $132,000 232 $100,200 139 +$31,800 +32% +20%
Pennsylvania $110,000 198 $93,834 164 +$16,166 +17% +15%
Michigan $104,404 194 $86,965 104 +$17,439 +20% +11%
Ohio $110,160 201 $83,000 89 +$27,160 +33% +24%
Arizona $115,710 199 $95,555 73 +$20,155 +21% +14%
Arkansas $125,569 126 $107,012 65 +$18,557 +17% +16%
Tennessee $114,566 113 $93,167 62 +$21,399 +23% +18%
Connecticut $126,942 121 $98,906 38 +$28,036 +28% +9%
Maryland $115,939 81 $87,386 69 +$28,553 +33% +21%
Missouri $101,000 92 $79,500 52 +$21,500 +27% +17%
Minnesota $110,025 66 $97,750 42 +$12,275 +13% +15%
Colorado $115,357 71 $95,680 33 +$19,677 +21% +14%
Indiana $96,013 48 $82,500 45 +$13,513 +16% +11%
Utah $128,669 43 $97,093 42 +$31,576 +33% +19%
Wisconsin $125,902 56 $110,739 29 +$15,163 +14% +13%
Kansas $111,717 44 $79,845 24 +$31,872 +40% +21%
New Hampshire $125,029 39 $89,627 25 +$35,402 +39% +31%
Delaware $109,845 33 $94,546 24 +$15,298 +16% +4%
South Carolina $117,000 35 $89,108 22 +$27,892 +31% +17%
Rhode Island $127,400 43 $98,990 13 +$28,410 +29% +14%
Nebraska $118,165 35 $84,053 15 +$34,112 +41% +25%
Nevada $112,925 34 $80,226 16 +$32,699 +41% +14%
Oregon $127,878 39 $81,151 10 +$46,727 +58% +31%
Alabama $109,491 25 $64,832 22 +$44,659 +69% +23%
Kentucky $97,000 33 $83,418 14 +$13,582 +16% +13%
District of Columbia $116,970 22 $97,578 22 +$19,391 +20% +24%
Iowa $110,000 23 $85,250 13 +$24,750 +29% +11%
Oklahoma $102,500 12 $75,358 19 +$27,142 +36% +30%

By metro area

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ has the most data analyst filings of any metro. Among the 12 metros below, the widest gap is in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA ($41,700) and the narrowest in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD ($13,832). For how these metros rank on IT pay in general, our highest paying cities for IT jobs report uses BLS metro data across all computer occupations.

The 12 metro areas with the most data analyst filings (at least 30 per title), year ending June 2026. BLS May 2025 metro definitions.
Metro area Data engineer Data analyst Gap Same-level premium
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ $132,000664 $109,491448 +$22,509 +18%
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX $112,9231,553 $96,034447 +$16,889 +11%
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV $126,090272 $99,798363 +$26,292 +15%
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN $125,000335 $96,928204 +$28,072 +13%
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA $172,585352 $145,407153 +$27,178 +17%
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA $117,440347 $93,980152 +$23,460 +17%
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA $147,674135 $110,000133 +$37,674 +17%
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA $186,888482 $145,187132 +$41,700 +21%
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD $109,845195 $96,013131 +$13,832 +8%
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH $131,975206 $100,122124 +$31,854 +20%
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA $156,200670 $117,075116 +$39,125 +26%
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX $132,100396 $102,000111 +$30,100 +17%

Employers that hire both

The largest filers differ by title. For data engineers the top filers were Amazon (643), Meta (303), Fidelity (181), Walmart (96). For data analysts they were Capital One (279), Kforce (74), Walmart (55), Capgemini (39). The table lists employers that filed at least five times for each title, so the comparison is inside one company’s pay structure.

Employers with at least five filings for each title, the 12 with the most data analyst filings, year ending June 2026. Employer names merged only by the published parent list.
Employer Data engineer Data analyst Gap
Capital One $177,10024 $92,458279 +$84,642
Walmart $140,91796 $122,48155 +$18,436
Capgemini $119,80022 $142,10639 -$22,306
FedEx $144,94043 $118,82028 +$26,120
TT Commerce & Global Services $219,7009 $170,00023 +$49,700
Intuit $180,3985 $152,00023 +$28,398
Robotics Technologies $87,2668 $89,52320 -$2,256
The Vanguard Group $143,44226 $136,40118 +$7,041
Optum $119,64217 $118,89317 +$749
Fidelity $125,119181 $116,70917 +$8,410
Randstad Digital $135,00037 $109,84515 +$25,155
Meta $199,234303 $184,80214 +$14,432

Has the gap changed?

The dollar gap was $25,001 in the year ending June 2022 and $28,500 in the year ending June 2026. The same-level premium moved from 16.3% to 19.7% over the same span. Filing counts are a record of H-1B demand rather than of the whole job market: data engineer filings went from 7,697 to 8,904, data analyst filings from 3,950 to 4,307. Our H-1B statistics page tracks the program as a whole.

$80K$90K$100K$110K$120K$130KYE Jun 2022YE Jun 2023YE Jun 2024YE Jun 2025YE Jun 2026Data engineer, YE Jun 2022: $116,043 median (7,697 filings)Data engineer, YE Jun 2023: $120,000 median (6,794 filings)Data engineer, YE Jun 2024: $116,000 median (7,957 filings)Data engineer, YE Jun 2025: $125,000 median (9,175 filings)Data engineer, YE Jun 2026: $125,000 median (8,904 filings)Data engineer $125KData analyst, YE Jun 2022: $91,042 median (3,950 filings)Data analyst, YE Jun 2023: $97,000 median (3,131 filings)Data analyst, YE Jun 2024: $91,000 median (4,003 filings)Data analyst, YE Jun 2025: $94,557 median (4,495 filings)Data analyst, YE Jun 2026: $96,500 median (4,307 filings)Data analyst $96K+$25K+$23K+$25K+$30K+$28K
Median offered wage by year ending June, with the dollar gap between the lines. Each point is all certified full-time filings for the title in that 12-month window.
Five years of filings, each window July to June by decision date.
Year ending Data engineer median Filings Data analyst median Filings Gap Same-level premium
Jun 2022 $116,043 7,697 $91,042 3,950 +$25,001 +16.3%
Jun 2023 $120,000 6,794 $97,000 3,131 +$23,000 +15.8%
Jun 2024 $116,000 7,957 $91,000 4,003 +$25,000 +15.6%
Jun 2025 $125,000 9,175 $94,557 4,495 +$30,443 +16.2%
Jun 2026 $125,000 8,904 $96,500 4,307 +$28,500 +19.7%

Can data engineers make $300K?

In base wage on an H-1B filing, rarely. 15 of 8,904 data engineer filings (0.2%) offered $300,000 or more, led by TikTok / ByteDance (6), Sanas AI (2), Arbiter AI (2). 515 (5.8%) offered $200,000 or more. On the data analyst side, 39 filings (0.9%) reached $200,000 and none reached $300,000. The highest data analyst offer was $276,000. These are base wages only: equity and bonus, where most pay above $300,000 usually sits, are not on the form.

What BLS says, and why it cannot settle this

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes no data engineer or data analyst wage. Neither is an occupation in the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification, and the BLS direct match title file lists no titles containing “data engineer” and none containing “data analyst”. Employers filing LCAs must still pick a SOC code, and their choices show the problem. They put 68% of data analyst filings and 39% of data engineer filings under the same code, 15-2051 Data Scientists. The rest of the data engineer filings went mostly to 15-1252 Software Developers and 15-1243 Database Architects.

Which SOC occupation code employers put on each title (share of filings, year ending June 2026), next to the BLS OEWS May 2025 national median for that code.
SOC code and BLS title Data engineer filings Data analyst filings OEWS median OEWS employment
15-2051 Data Scientists 39.1% 68.1% $120,230 262,440
15-1252 Software Developers 32.0% 2.5% $135,980 1,687,890
15-1243 Database Architects 16.9% 2.2% $139,500 67,140
15-1242 Database Administrators 5.6% 2.4% $104,620 69,990
15-1299 Computer Occupations, All Other 2.6% 1.3% $116,580 435,370
15-2031 Operations Research Analysts 0.3% 6.4% $88,940 108,510
15-1211 Computer Systems Analysts 0.5% 3.5% $105,850 519,530
15-2041 Statisticians 0.2% 3.4% $105,650 29,030

If you map each title to BLS codes in the same proportions employers used, the OEWS May 2025 national medians imply about $126,977 for data engineers and $117,059 for data analysts, a gap of $9,918. That blend covers 99% and 91% of filings (codes with a published OEWS median) and is our construction, not a BLS figure. It is far narrower than the filings gap because the two titles share a code whose median, $120,230, BLS computes over every job in it. Any page quoting “BLS data” for a data engineer salary is quoting one of these codes, usually 15-1243 ($139,500) or 15-2051 ($120,230). For the data scientist code itself, see our data scientist salary report.

What this means for MSPs and IT teams

  • Budget the data engineer seat 11% to 30% above the analyst seat. The raw filings gap is $28,500 (30%); for the same level at the same employer it is 11%. Comparing a junior analyst with a senior engineer overstates it.
  • Price by level, not by title. A Level IV data analyst ($144,914) costs more than a Level III data engineer ($139,152). If a client wants a reporting role with pipeline duties, the level you write in the job description moves cost more than the title.
  • Use the state table for remote hires. The Texas gap ($17,513) and the New Jersey gap ($8,611) differ by $8,902, so a single national multiplier misprices one of them.
  • Do not lean on BLS codes for a quote. 15-2051 covers both titles in most filings. Its $120,230 OEWS median sits $23,730 above the data analyst filing median and $4,770 below the data engineer filing median, so one number misprices both seats.
  • Upskilling an analyst into pipeline work is worth real money. The Level II gap, the most common level for both titles, is $15,995 a year.

Frequently asked questions

What pays more, a data engineer or a data analyst?

Data engineers. In 13,211 certified H-1B filings decided July 2025 to June 2026 the median offered base wage was $125,000 for data engineers and $96,500 for data analysts, a $28,500 (30%) gap. Inside the same employer and wage level the premium is 11%.

What is the data engineer vs data analyst salary for freshers?

At DOL wage Level I, the entry level on these filings, data engineers were offered a median $95,000 and data analysts $78,000, a $17,000 gap. Only 19 filings for the two titles used the word junior or entry.

Can data engineers make $300K?

Some do, but it is rare on these filings: 15 of 8,904 data engineer filings (0.2%) offered $300,000 or more in base wage, and 515 (5.8%) offered $200,000 or more. For data analysts the counts were 0 and 39. Bonus and equity are not in the data.

Is a data analyst a dead-end job?

Not on pay grounds. Level IV data analyst filings had a median of $144,914, above the Level III data engineer median of $139,152, and staff data analyst titles had a median of $177,784 on 33 filings. Filings for the title rose from 3,950 to 4,307 between the years ending June 2022 and June 2026.

Does BLS publish a data engineer or data analyst salary?

No. Neither title is a federal SOC occupation, and neither appears in the 2018 SOC direct match title file. Employers placed 68% of data analyst filings and 39% of data engineer filings under 15-2051 Data Scientists, whose OEWS May 2025 national median is $120,230.

Download the data. data-engineer-vs-data-analyst-salary-h1b-ledger.csv (CSV). Licensed under CC BY 4.0: free to reuse with attribution to The Uptime Report.

Free to cite and republish with a link. The CSV is the aggregate ledger: every line on this page (national, level, title word, state, metro, employer, year and SOC code) with counts and medians for both titles.

Methodology

Source. U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification, LCA Disclosure Data, quarterly files FY2021 Q1 to FY2026 Q3. On November 12, 2026 the OFLC performance page listed FY2026 Q3 (decisions through June 30, 2026) as the newest file. The files were already on disk from earlier reports and were reused, not downloaded again.

Filter. H-1B visa class, case status Certified, full-time position, one row per case number. Headline window: decision date July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Wage: WAGE_RATE_OF_PAY_FROM, annualized (hour x 2,080, week x 52, bi-weekly x 26, month x 12), kept between $20,000 and $1,000,000. Where a range was filed (31% of data engineer, 33% of data analyst filings) we use the bottom.

Title rules. Titles are upper-cased with spaces collapsed. Data engineer: \bDATA ENGINEERS?\b, excluding SALES|RECRUITER|ARCHITECT|SCIENTIST|ANALYST, the same rule as our data engineer salary by experience page. Data analyst: \bDATA ANALYSTS?\b, excluding ENGINEER|ENGINEERING|SCIENTIST|SCIENCE|ARCHITECT. Both exclude managers, directors, vice presidents, heads, chiefs, interns and similar (\b(MANAGER|MGR|MANAGEMENT|DIRECTOR|VP|VICE PRESIDENT|PRESIDENT|HEAD OF|HEAD|CHIEF|CTO|INTERN|RECRUITER|PROFESSOR|POSTDOC\w*|POST-DOC\w*)\b). Exact titles only: DATA ENGINEER $110,448 (4,091) vs DATA ANALYST $93,454 (1,767).

Precision. The AI research agent that built this page read 100 random data analyst titles from the headline window (seed 20261112). 99 name a data analyst job; 1 is a hybrid (a combined data and IT analyst title). For the data engineer rule, the 200-title sample drawn for our data engineer salary page found 197 correct. No human reviewed the labels. Recall was not measured: analysts titled business intelligence analyst or analytics engineer are outside both rules.

Gaps. Dollar gaps are differences of medians. Percent premiums in the adjusted lines are the average log-wage difference between the titles inside cells of the listed controls, using only cells that hold both titles, converted from logs, with standard errors clustered by employer. Employer names are merged with the published parent list shared with our other LCA reports, otherwise a cleaned legal name. Metro is the worksite county and state mapped to BLS May 2025 areas, with ZIP code as a fallback; 99.5% of filings resolved. Dropping filings with no wage level gives a same-level premium of 18.1%. These comparisons describe the filings; they do not prove why the gap exists.

BLS context. OEWS May 2025 national estimates (the BLS OEWS tables page, checked November 12, 2026, lists May 2025 as the newest release). The SOC blend weights each code’s national median by that code’s share of each title’s filings, over codes with a published median.

Limits. H-1B positions are a subset of each job market and the wage has a legal floor (the higher of the prevailing or actual wage), which lifts the low end. Base wage only, with no bonus, equity or benefits. A certified filing is an offer, not a wage paid, and may lead to no hire; filings include extensions and employer changes. The employer chooses the wage level and the SOC code. Not advice: these are labor market statistics, not a compensation recommendation.

Cite as: The Uptime Report. "Data Engineer vs Data Analyst Salary: Engineers Get $28,500 More." November 2026. https://theuptimereport.com/data-engineer-vs-data-analyst-salary/

References

  1. U.S. Department of Labor, OFLC Performance Data: LCA Disclosure Data FY2021 to FY2026 Q3, with record layout. Accessed November 2026.
  2. U.S. Department of Labor, Prevailing Wage Determination Policy Guidance (revised November 2009). Accessed November 2026.
  3. U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet 62G: H-1B required wage. Accessed November 2026.
  4. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS tables, May 2025 national estimates. Accessed November 2026.
  5. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018 Standard Occupational Classification and direct match title file. Accessed November 2026.

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