Pemo TheodoreAhead of the US election, the Trump administration wants new rules to raise the cost of foreign workers on H-1B visas
The administration has framed the H-1B reforms and foreign employee wage requirement as a way to protect American workers as the coronavirus pandemic pummels the US labor market.
The interim rule aims to improve the accuracy of the ‘prevailing wage’ methodology that the department currently uses to remove incentives for companies to hire foreign workers in the US rather than US workers.
“The current wage-level computations may adversely affect the wages and job opportunities of US workers by allowing employers to pay wages to foreign workers at a rate below the market rate for similarly employed US workers,” the interim rule states.
“This can result in either employers preferring to hire foreign workers over US workers, or result in wage suppression for US workers. These problems, in turn, can also impede US workers’ return to the workforce at income levels comparable to what they were making before the downturn.” Read more via ZDNet
