Tuesday, February 2, 2021
On February 1, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) formally proposed delaying the implementation of its final rule, entitled “Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States.” This rule was scheduled to go into effect on March 15, 2021. The rule, which was published during the last days of the Trump administration, was an updated version of the rule originally published as an interim final rule on October 8, 2020. The rule revises how the existing four-tiered wage structure of the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) wage survey is calculated for purposes of determining prevailing wages. The updated wage structure would impact H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 temporary work visas, as well as the permanent labor certification program (PERM) that supports many employer-based green card applications.