Trump H-1B Visa Wage Rule Gives Clue To Second-Term Immigration Policy

Of note:

A Trump administration rule in 2020 designed to price H-1B visa holders and employment-based immigrants out of the U.S. labor market offers clues to U.S. immigration policy if Donald Trump wins in November. Although blocked on procedural grounds, the rule alarmed companies by boosting the required minimum salary for foreign-born professionals far beyond the pay of similar U.S. employees. The rule may give pause to those who expect a second Trump administration to be different from the first one on business immigration.

How The Trump Rule Aimed To Price Immigrants Out Of The U.S. Labor Market

On October 8, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor published a rule that significantly raised the minimum wage required for employers to pay H-1B visa holders and employment-based immigrants. Currently, the law requires employers to pay H-1B professionals the prevailing wage or actual wage paid to similar U.S. workers, whichever is higher. Employment-based immigrants need a prevailing wage determination for employers to sponsor them for permanent residence. Despite no change in the law, the Trump administration wrote a regulation that caused the salaries required to be paid to foreign-born scientists and engineers to skyrocket.

After the rule was published, immigration attorneys discovered Trump officials had directed DOL to “hijack” the mathematical formula used to determine prevailing wages. After changing the formula, the rule required employers to pay high-skilled foreign nationals far higher than the market wage. That became clear when private sector salary surveys were compared to federal government wage determinations under the Trump rule.

The prevailing wage is “the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific occupation in the area of intended employment,” according to the DOL website. “That means statistics, not politics, should control the prevailing wage,” said Kevin Miner of Fragomen when the rule was published. “The new DOL regulation artificially pushes the prevailing wage well above what the data shows it to be.”

Close examination found many cases under the rule when hiring an H-1B visa holder or sponsoring a foreign national for permanent residence would likely become impossible….

Source: Trump H-1B Visa Wage Rule Gives Clue To Second-Term Immigration Policy