Every figure on Groundwork comes from a public record or a named research group. This page lists the 24 sources: who publishes each, what we use it for and one thing worth knowing about it. The name of each source links to its publisher. Entries were last read against the publishers' pages on October 19, 2026.
Guides to reading the data
How to read BEA regional price parities: 387 metro areas
What a regional price parity of 95 or 110 means, how BEA builds one, how 387 metro areas spread around 100, why rent drives it and how the site uses it for pay after cost of living.
How to read OEWS wage data: 824 occupations in 393 metros
The columns and symbols of the OEWS workbooks, what a wage and a percentile mean, how precise the numbers are, and how the H-1B wage levels are built from them.
How to read DOL wage and hour enforcement data: 267,635 cases
The fields of a Wage and Hour case, the laws behind the numbers, what back wages agreed to pay and penalties assessed mean, and the cases a copy of the dataset leaves out.
How to read the H-1B LCA disclosure data: what 661,885 filings hold
The fields of an LCA, the case statuses, wage units and wage levels, and what the quarterly files leave out, with what 661,885 certified filings show.
How to read a WARN notice: what 4,099 state filings contain
What the notices can say, why some are missing, the federal rules and the state lists, the fields of a WARN notice and how we count them, with what a year of notices shows.
What employers offer, and what surveys measure.
U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification
The Labor Condition Applications that employers file before sponsoring H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 workers, published as quarterly Excel files with the employer, job title, occupation code, offered wage, DOL wage level and worksite. Used for: The H-1B sponsorship pages, each employer's hiring trend, and the offered-wage figures shown beside the survey wages.
Our copy: 15 months of DOL decisions (Jul–Sep 2024, Jul–Sep 2025, Oct 2025–Jun 2026). A filing records the wage an employer offers, ahead of any petition, and the files skew toward tech and mid-size to large employers.
How to read the H-1B LCA disclosure data: what 661,885 filings hold →
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey: wage percentiles for almost every occupation in each metro area and state, from a survey of employers. Used for: The main wage figures on salary pages and reports, and the base for the target range.
Our copy: May 2025 estimates. It counts straight-time pay, which leaves out nonproduction bonuses and the cost of benefits.
O*NET Resource Center, U.S. Department of Labor
About 54,000 alternate job titles across about 1,100 occupations, each linked to a standard occupation code. Used for: Turning the job title a visitor types into an occupation code.
Some titles in the file carry a second name in brackets, and we split those into both forms.
What the public record says about one employer.
U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
The Enforcement dataset: every compliance action the division has concluded since fiscal year 2005, with the employer, the laws involved, back wages and penalties, including actions that found no violation. Used for: Each employer's wage-and-hour record on company pages and reports, and the Insights articles on child labor and on restaurant and hotel chains.
Our copy keeps a row for each case and law where a case found a violation, under the laws that bear on pay and visas: wages, child labor, sub-minimum wage, H-1B, H-2A, H-2B, Davis-Bacon and migrant and seasonal farmworker protection.
How to read DOL wage and hour enforcement data: 267,635 cases →
CourtListener, Free Law Project
Federal court dockets, which include wage-and-hour suits under the Fair Labor Standards Act (nature of suit 710). Used for: A count of suits filed against an employer on its company page, and the list of cases in the paid report.
A docket shows that a claim was filed and carries no outcome, and a larger employer draws more of them.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR
The figures each public company reports in its own annual filing (Form 10-K), served through EDGAR's XBRL company-facts interface. Used for: The revenue trend and latest net income on company pages and reports.
We match a company to its filings by exact name or a hand-checked entry, so a name with no match shows no financials.
State workforce agencies, collected by the WARN Notice Register
Advance notices of plant closings and mass layoffs, which employers file with each state under the federal WARN Act and state laws. Used for: The layoff page for each employer, the Insights layoff articles, the weekly digest and the press page.
Our copy: current through October 20, 2026. The register covers 46 states and DC; Arkansas, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Wyoming have no listings in it.
How to read a WARN notice: what 4,099 state filings contain →
Federal Election Commission
Bulk files of individual campaign contributions, itemized for donors who gave more than $200 in a cycle, with the employer each donor reported. Used for: A political-giving profile of the employer in the paid report.
The files cover individual donors who named the employer, and the company's own political spending sits elsewhere.
What a place costs, and what it costs to move there.
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
A price-level index for each metro area, with the U.S. average at 100. Used for: The cost-of-living signal, and pay after cost of living: the wage divided by the index.
BEA publishes an update each year.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Rent estimates for studio to three-bedroom homes in each area, set each fiscal year. Used for: The rent figures on relocation pages.
HUD's metro codes come in three shapes, and we check each against the real metro codes.
U.S. General Services Administration
The rate per 100 pounds, by distance, that GSA uses to reimburse federal employees' moves, updated each November 1. Used for: The moving-cost ballpark on relocation pages.
The household weight behind the estimate is a moving-industry rule of thumb, and the page says so.
Tax Foundation
A yearly compilation of each state's individual income tax rates and brackets. Used for: Whether a state taxes wages, whether its structure is flat or graduated, and its top rate, on relocation pages.
Tax Foundation is a private research group, and the one source on this page that no government agency publishes.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey
Five-year estimates of median household income for each metro area. Used for: The income figure on relocation pages.
Census marks suppressed estimates with large negative codes, and we drop them.
Work, schools, climate and politics, by metro area.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics
Annual average unemployment rates for each metro area. Used for: The unemployment figure on relocation pages.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey
The mean travel time to work for each metro area, from the survey's data profile. Used for: The commute figure on relocation pages.
U.S. Census Bureau
Annual population estimates for metro areas and counties. Used for: Finding metros of similar size, and weighting the walkability scores.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
The 1991 to 2020 monthly and annual averages of temperature, precipitation and snowfall at weather stations. Used for: The climate card and chart on relocation pages.
We match stations to metros by name, which covers about 73% of the metros, and the rest show no climate card.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
A walkability score from 1 to 20 for every census block group. Used for: A population-weighted score for each metro on relocation pages.
National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data
A directory of regular public school districts with their enrollment for the 2023-24 school year. Used for: Total enrollment and the number of districts in each metro, shown as scale with no rating.
National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data
The full-time-equivalent teachers of each district, from the same staff file. Used for: Students per teacher in each metro.
U.S. Census Bureau, School District Finance Survey (F-33)
Current spending per pupil for each school system, for the 2022-23 fiscal year. Used for: Spending per pupil in each metro.
Finance data runs a year behind the enrollment data.
MIT Election Data and Science Lab
County-level presidential election returns for 2000 to 2024, held on Harvard Dataverse. Used for: The political-leaning section: the two-party vote share of each metro's counties in 2024.
It describes a place, and says nothing about one person or one employer's workforce.
The map under the metro pages.
U.S. Office of Management and Budget, published by the Census Bureau
The list of counties that make up each metropolitan and micropolitan area, from the 2023 delineation. Used for: Placing every county, ZIP code and school district in a metro.
U.S. Census Bureau
Coordinates for places and metro areas. Used for: The map pin for each metro, set at its principal city.
A metro's geographic center can sit far from where anyone lives, so the pin uses the principal city.
Each source is public. The pages built on them say what they cover and where they stop, and the Insights articles show the figures behind a finding. Informational only; not legal, immigration, or financial advice.
Wage data: U.S. Department of Labor OFLC LCA Disclosure Data and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS. LCA filings reflect sponsored-worker wage offers, which skew toward mid-large employers and specific occupations — treat any estimate built from a small sample cautiously. Informational only; not legal, immigration, or financial advice.