DOL Announces Additional Proposed Delay in Effective Date of Final Rule Affecting Wages for H-1B and PERM Workers

The Department of Labor announced a delay to the effective date of the Final Rule, Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States, for a period of eighteen months or until November 14, 2022. The DOL has also proposed corresponding delays to the rule’s transition dates. Under the law, an employer must pay an H-1B worker the actual wage or the prevailing wage, whichever is higher. The new rule will change how the DOL applies its four-level wage approach to prevailing wage determinations, resulting in considerably higher wage requirements for H-1B workers and PERM applicants.  

AILA submitted a comment to the DOL on April 20, 2021, stating “Prevailing wages should not reflect political priorities or desires. Congress's role is to make or modify laws affecting the country’s approach to immigration preferences, not that of the federal agencies…The Wage Rule continues to be based upon the flawed presumption that the amount a worker is paid, and that element alone, determines the value that worker brings to the United States. To this end, the Wage Rule attempts to increase required wages for foreign national workers well above what science shows the market indicates, thus changing the prevailing wage calculation from a mathematical one to a political one.”