What Happened?

Whether you hire skilled foreign workers, work alongside them, or compete with them for jobs, the pay floor behind those positions could be about to jump. In March, the Trump administration proposed a rule that would raise the minimum wages employers must pay H-1B visa holders and workers on related specialty-occupation visas, at all four skill levels, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report.

Right now, the lowest skill tier sets the minimum wage at roughly the 17th percentile of pay for a given job and location, and the proposal would lift that floor to the 34th. At the top tier, the floor would jump from about the 67th percentile to the 88th.

Why Does it Matter to Me?

The H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 visa programs cover foreign nationals in specialty occupations, jobs that typically require specialized knowledge and at least a bachelor's degree. CRS says higher wage floors could make it harder for employers to use visa workers to undercut prevailing market pay. But they could also raise employer costs and limit access to specialized foreign workers, especially in lower-wage regions and occupations.

There's also a $60,000 annual wage threshold, set by the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998, that exempts certain H-1B workers from extra recruitment and non-displacement requirements. It hasn't been adjusted since 1998.

Both Sides, Now

Opponents warn that substantially higher wage floors could make H-1B hiring unaffordable or impractical for employers, including universities.

Courts have been down this road before: a federal court set aside the Labor Department's 2020 interim prevailing-wage rule in *Chamber of Commerce v. DHS* over its notice-and-comment process. In a separate case, *Purdue University v. Scalia*, a court ordered the department to reissue wage determinations issued under that rule, including those that produced a default wage of $100 an hour, or $208,000 a year. Meanwhile, several bills would write H-1B wage requirements into law, including the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act (S. 2928), which would require employers to pay at least the median wage for the same occupation and area. CRS notes that versions of that bill have been introduced in nearly every Congress since 2009, with bipartisan support.

What Happens Next?

CRS says that if several wage-floor bills in the 119th Congress were enacted, they could complement, replace, or supersede the regulatory changes.

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