H-1B wage filings · FY2022 to FY2026 · Decisions through June 30, 2026
Venture Capital Salary Report
What venture firms actually offered, by title, from 833 H-1B Labor Condition Applications filed with the U.S. Department of Labor by 147 venture capital and growth firms. The median filed base salary is $160K for an associate, $250K for a principal and $300K for a partner.
Every figure is base pay as filed: no bonus, no carry, and only roles at firms that sponsor visas. Each number on this page is computed from the filings when the page is built, and the method below says exactly which filings count.
Written by Michael Kaufman · Reviewed against our editorial standards · Updated
Base salary by role
Full-time positions, all fiscal years pooled. The bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile of filed base wages; the dark mark is the median. Titles are mapped to roles by a reviewed rule set: “Investment Associate” is an associate, “Investor Relations Associate” is operations.
| Role | Filings | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct | Firms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analyst | 90 | $110K | $125K | $200K | 40 |
| Associate | 183 | $130K | $160K | $180K | 51 |
| Senior Associate | 54 | $154K | $181K | $208K | 27 |
| Principal | 35 | $177K | $250K | $350K | 25 |
| Vice President | 66 | $200K | $260K | $325K | 22 |
| Partner / Managing Director | 48 | $245K | $300K | $500K | 22 |
| Operations / Platform | 139 | $126K | $160K | $240K | 46 |
| Other rolesEngineering, data, product and the rest; aggregate only | 207 | $160K | $200K | $225K | 55 |
The filings say what the title was, not what the job was. Operations and platform covers fund finance, tax, legal, investor relations, talent and community roles; its most common filed titles are Finance Manager, Senior Finance Associate, Accounting Manager, Finance Associate, Head of Investor Relations. Partner covers partners, general partners and managing directors without a functional title.
By fiscal year
Federal fiscal years run October to September and are assigned by the date the Department of Labor certified the filing. The median across all roles moved from $175K in FY2022 to $200K in FY2026 (Oct 2025 to Jun 2026); the role mix changes from year to year, so read the investing-roles column for like-for-like.
| Fiscal year | Filings | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct | Investing roles median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY202271 firms | 171 | $140K | $175K | $220K | $175K |
| FY202360 firms | 137 | $140K | $180K | $230K | $179K |
| FY202463 firms | 167 | $141K | $180K | $227K | $180K |
| FY202567 firms | 183 | $140K | $175K | $250K | $175K |
| FY2026 (Oct 2025 to Jun 2026)55 firms | 164 | $150K | $200K | $280K | $200K |
By metro area
Worksite as filed, grouped into metro areas: Menlo Park, Palo Alto and San Francisco are one Bay Area, and Manhattan, Brooklyn, Short Hills and Stamford are one New York. Metros with at least 5 filings are listed; 8 filings in 7 other places are not.
| Metro area | Filings | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct | Investing roles median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York62 firms | 351 | $150K | $185K | $250K | $184K |
| San Francisco Bay Area88 firms | 347 | $142K | $189K | $250K | $175K |
| Boston9 firms | 40 | $123K | $160K | $180K | $160K |
| Washington, DC6 firms | 21 | $110K | $175K | $220K | $175K |
| Dallas-Fort Worth2 firms | 16 | $92K | $107K | $111K | n < 5 |
| Los Angeles10 firms | 15 | $130K | $175K | $250K | $205K |
| Austin4 firms | 11 | $108K | $140K | $156K | n < 5 |
| Miami5 firms | 7 | $118K | $150K | $219K | $150K |
| Chicago2 firms | 6 | $83K | $98K | $134K | $98K |
By firm size
Assets under management as stated on each firm's VC Beast profile. Firms that state AUM in another currency or not at all (39 firms, 71 filings) are left out. Large firms file far more often, so the smaller buckets rest on fewer filings.
| Firm AUM | Filings | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct | Investing roles median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $500M AUM21 firms | 36 | $119K | $148K | $194K | $155K |
| $500M to $2B AUM23 firms | 82 | $141K | $174K | $210K | $155K |
| $2B to $10B AUM37 firms | 143 | $140K | $175K | $225K | $190K |
| $10B+ AUM25 firms | 490 | $150K | $185K | $250K | $180K |
Firms with the most filings
The 20 firms with the most full-time filings, FY2022 to FY2026. The median covers every role the firm filed for, including engineering and operations, so it describes the firm's filings rather than its investment team. 39 firms have 5 or more filings.
| Firm | Filings | Median base | Roles filed |
|---|---|---|---|
| TPG Capital | 66 | $125K | analyst, associate, senior associate, vice president, partner / managing director, operations / platform, other |
| Warburg Pincus | 53 | $200K | analyst, associate, vice president, operations / platform |
| Iconiq Capital | 46 | $165K | analyst, associate, senior associate, principal, vice president, operations / platform, other |
| Andreessen Horowitz | 44 | $290K | analyst, associate, partner / managing director, operations / platform, other |
| Coatue Management | 35 | $210K | analyst, vice president, partner / managing director, operations / platform, other |
| General Atlantic | 35 | $150K | analyst, associate, senior associate, principal, vice president, partner / managing director, operations / platform, other |
| Flagship Pioneering | 28 | $160K | associate, senior associate, vice president, operations / platform, other |
| Insight Partners | 27 | $188K | analyst, associate, senior associate, principal, vice president, operations / platform, other |
| Vista Equity Partners | 27 | $152K | analyst, associate, senior associate, vice president, operations / platform, other |
| Viking Global Investors | 24 | $175K | analyst, associate, senior associate, operations / platform, other |
| Sequoia Capital | 23 | $220K | associate, partner / managing director, operations / platform, other |
| Tiger Global Management | 22 | $200K | analyst, operations / platform, other |
| General Catalyst | 19 | $250K | analyst, associate, senior associate, principal, partner / managing director, operations / platform, other |
| CapitalG | 13 | $175K | associate, operations / platform, other |
| Dragoneer Investment Group | 13 | $150K | analyst, associate, operations / platform, other |
| Goodwater Capital | 11 | $210K | principal, vice president, operations / platform, other |
| Paradigm | 11 | $169K | operations / platform, other |
| Durable Capital Partners | 9 | $180K | analyst, associate |
| Venrock | 9 | $130K | analyst, associate, operations / platform, other |
| B Capital | 8 | $140K | associate, vice president, operations / platform |
What this data does not cover
- Bonus and carried interest. The filing states base wage only. For principals and partners, carry and the management company's profits are usually larger than base; see how carry works by role.
- Firms and people who do not file. Only employers sponsoring an H-1B, H-1B1 or E-3 worker file a Labor Condition Application, and only for that worker's role. Most venture firms never file, and partners who are paid through the general partner entity rather than as employees do not appear.
- The wage actually paid. The filing is an offer the employer attests it will pay at least; the worker may earn more, and some certified filings are never used.
Method
Source. U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification, LCA disclosure data for H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 Labor Condition Applications: 17 quarterly files covering decisions from October 1, 2021 to June 30, 2026 (FY2022 to FY2026). Together they hold 2,632,409 certified applications across all employers.
Which filings count. Applications with a status of Certified or Certified - Withdrawn whose employer is a firm in the VC Beast directory. Employer names are matched by the firm's legal or trade name, with management-company suffixes removed ("Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC" is Sequoia Capital), plus a reviewed list of firms that file under another name ("AH Capital Management, LLC" is Andreessen Horowitz). Operating companies that share a firm's name are excluded by the same list. Each case is counted once.
Wage. The offered wage rate of pay, the lower bound where a range is given, converted to an annual figure from its unit of pay (hourly at 2,080 hours). Not the prevailing wage, which is the legal minimum for the occupation. 11 part-time filings are left out of every distribution, and a range is shown only where a group has at least 5 filings.
Roles. Job titles as filed are mapped to analyst, associate, senior associate, principal, vice president, partner (including managing director) and operations or platform by a reviewed rule set. Titles that fit none of them, mostly engineering and data roles, are shown only in aggregate as other roles.
Dates. Fiscal year comes from the decision date. The dataset was generated on October 1, 2026 from files published by the Department of Labor through Jun 2026, and is rebuilt when the next quarter is released.
Sources
- OFLC Performance Data, U.S. Department of Labor (disclosure data and record layouts)
- Files used: LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2022_Q1, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2022_Q2, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2022_Q3, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2022_Q4, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2023_Q1, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2023_Q2, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2023_Q3, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2023_Q4, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2024_Q1, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2024_Q2, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2024_Q3, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2024_Q4, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2025_Q1, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2025_Q2, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2025_Q3, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2025_Q4, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2026_Q3
Related
- Venture capital salary guide, role by role, with how bonus and carry add to base.
- VC job board, open roles at venture firms.
- VC career paths and how to get a job in venture capital.
- VC interview questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do venture capitalists make?
In base salary filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, the median is $125K for analysts, $160K for associates, $181K for senior associates, $250K for principals, $260K for vice presidents and $300K for partners and managing directors. These are offered base wages on 833 H-1B Labor Condition Applications filed by 147 venture and growth firms between October 1, 2021 and June 30, 2026. They exclude bonus and carried interest, which for partners is usually most of their pay.
What does a VC associate earn?
Associates are the most common investing title in the filings: 183 filings at 51 firms, with a median filed base of $160K and a middle half of $130K to $180K. Senior associates file a median of $181K.
Do these salaries include bonus and carry?
No. A Labor Condition Application states the base wage the employer offers; it has no field for bonus, carried interest, co-investment or equity. Treat every figure on this page as the floor of cash pay, not total compensation.
Which city pays venture capitalists the most?
New York has the most filings (351) with a median filed base of $185K, against $189K across 347 filings in San Francisco Bay Area. Smaller metros have too few filings at venture firms for a reliable comparison, and the mix of roles differs by city.
Do bigger funds pay more?
Firms with $10B or more in assets under management file a median base of $185K across 490 filings; firms with under $500M file $148K across 36. Firm size here is the assets under management on each firm's VC Beast profile; 39 firms with no stated US-dollar AUM are left out of that comparison.
Why use H-1B filings for VC salaries?
They are the only public record of what a named venture firm offered for a named job, filed under penalty of law and published by the Department of Labor. Self-reported surveys cover more people but cannot be checked. The trade-off is coverage: only employers that sponsor H-1B, H-1B1 or E-3 workers file, and only for those roles.
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