Hiring Foreign Talent Is About to Cost You a Lot More. Washington Just Made It Official

The US Department of Labor has issued a sweeping Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would sharply raise the minimum wages employers must pay H-1B, H-1B1, E-3 and PERM sponsored workers, in what immigration experts are calling the most consequential overhaul of the prevailing wage system in over two decades.

The proposed rule would restructure the existing four tier wage system using updated percentiles from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. Entry level H-1B workers, currently pegged at the 17th wage percentile for their occupation and location, would jump to the 34th percentile. Senior workers classified at Level IV would move from the 67th to the 88th percentile, dramatically increasing the mandatory salary floor for the most experienced visa holders. The DOL estimates the changes would raise average certified wages by approximately $14,000 per position.

The proposal resurrects an identical initiative from Trump's first term that was challenged in federal court and ultimately abandoned under the Biden administration. It arrives alongside a new $100,000 supplemental fee for overseas H-1B hires and a wage weighted lottery system that already favours higher paid applicants.

The public has 60 days to comment before a final rule is issued. For Indian IT professionals and the tech companies that employ them in large numbers across the Bay Area, the cumulative weight of these changes is unmistakable: the era of affordable skilled visa labour in America is drawing to a close.