Goldman Sachs & JPMorgan barely pay H1B holders $145k salaries on average
The state of financial services hiring is set to be shaken up by Donald Trump's recent executive order, that stipulates firms must make a one-off payment of $100k for each new H1B Visa application. Banks are some of the firms most likely to be impacted by this, but JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs will be impacted more than most.
The two US banks have collectively filed H1B Visa applications for at least 3,933 people in 2025 alone according to the H1B Visa Salary Database. That's more than Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citi, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and UBS... combined. On average, H1Bs at the two banks are paid salaries of $145k.
When looking at H1B salaries for individual banks, Goldman Sachs seems like it might face more negative repercussions from the executive order than rivals. Alongside employing vast amounts of H1Bs, it also pays them some of the lowest amounts on average. While JPMorgan has just 4 H1Bs on salaries under $100k, Goldman has more than 100 of them, predominantly entry-level analyst roles across New York, Salt Lake City and Dallas.
This doesn't mean that all analyst roles in the US for foreign nationals will dissipate; banking as an industry is characterised by investing in its employees long-term. In the grand scheme of things, that $100k might be just a small sliver of what you'd earn in your first few years in banking alone. Nonetheless, it might make banks apprehensive to file for those H1Bs during market downturns (good thing Goldman is predicting a bumper year for M&A next year then). Be wary, though, that other changes to H1B are being proposed, including a wage-based distribution system that could hamper opportunities for graduates even further.
The top paying H1Bs in banking tend to be in either technology roles or sales roles. UBS is paying a $500k salary to a H1B managing director in family office coverage, whereas Citi is paying a salary of over $611k to a product manager.
Some of the top paying banks on average to H1B visa staff are Jefferies and UBS, although this appears to be because their applications are concentrated on employees in New York (and New Jersey for Jefferies). HSBC, which pays the most for H1B Visas, doesn't appear to employ any entry-level staff; its H1B employees are usually at VP level upwards, or in specific technical roles.
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