On Tuesday October 6th the federal government announced two major changes impacting H-1B visas and PERM Labor Certifications. In this video, Becki Young addresses the first major change from DOL, which goes into effect on Thursday, October 8th. The interim final rule changes the way the Department of Labor (DOL) calculates prevailing wage, resulting in substantial increases to the wages employers are required to pay sponsored foreign workers.
DOL’s position is that the current system for calculating prevailing wage is inaccurate and skewed too produce lower wages. Although the H1B program under longstanding federal law is based on the premise that a Bachelor’s degree is the minimum requirement for entry into an occupation, the new rule is based on the premise that an individual with a master’s degree is the appropriate comparison for entry-level workers for purposes of determining the prevailing wage.
Further, the interim final rule applies retroactively with regards to pending prevailing wage requests for PERM cases.
To find out the exact increase in prevailing wage for a given job, please visit flcdatacenter.com.
The overall changes to prevailing wage calculation are:
- Level I Wage: 45th percentile (from 17th percentile)
- Level II Wage: 62nd percentile (from 34th percentile)
- Level III Wage: 78th percentile (from 50th percentile)
- Level IV Wage: 95th percentile (from 67th percentile)
