The Trump administration is proposing a significant increase in the minimum wages employers must pay H-1B and other foreign professional workers, seeking to raise entry-level salary requirements by more than 30%.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a proposed rule Mar. 27 that would restructure how prevailing wages are calculated for workers admitted under the H-1B and PERM labor certification programs impacting professional workers.
H-1B employers would be the largest affected group by far, but the rule would also affect H-1B1 employers of foreign nationals from Chile and Singapore; E-3 employers of foreign nationals from Australia; and EB-2 and EB-3 PERM sponsors of employment-based green cards.
In effect, the DOL seeks to raise the minimum wages employers must pay foreign workers before the government certifies their labor applications, shifting the program toward higher-wage roles and making it more costly to sponsor entry-level or early career workers.
Under current law, U.S. employers seeking to hire temporary foreign workers through the H-1B, H-1B1, or E-3 visa programs must pay foreign workers the higher of the prevailing wage for the area of intended employment or the actual wage rate paid to similarly qualified U.S. workers in the area of intended employment. For employers seeking to hire foreign workers permanently through the PERM labor certification program, employers are required to offer and pay foreign workers at least the prevailing wage for the...
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