ByStuart Anderson,
Senior Contributor.
A new proposed rule from the Trump administration will make it more expensive to hire H-1B visa holders and sponsor employment-based immigrants by significantly raising the required prevailing wage. Analysts say the Department of Labor rule does that by changing the formula in inappropriate ways designed to achieve a policy outcome. The proposed rule raises required minimum salaries by 21% to 33%, depending on a worker’s experience level, according to DOL. The rule has a 60-day comment period and could be subject to litigation after a final rule is published.
The proposed rule follows other Trump administration measures to restrict high-skilled immigration, including imposing a $100,000 fee on the entry of new H-1B visa holders. Trump officials, including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of the administration’s immigration policy, have sought to price many high-skilled foreign nationals out of the U.S. labor market. The rule is similar to a final rule published in January 2021 that did not take effect due to a change in presidential administrations. An October 2020 rule would have raised the required minimum salary higher, but it was blocked because judges found it was published as an “interim final” rule without adequate justification.
