If the proposal of the Department of Labor comes into force, IT employers will have to pay more for H1-B visa holders.
The US department of labor has submitted a proposal that changes the wage conditions of H-1B, H1-B1, and E-3 visa holders and also employment-based green cardholders to the office of management last week.
This interim rule, if approved will come into force immediately, and the employers and the public will have no say in the implementation.
H1-B1 is a special occupational visa allocated to those residing in Chile and Singapore for a year.
What does the New Rule say?
The immigration experts have pointed out that the move is aimed to encourage the companies to recruit locally instead of foreign residents.
Some of the experts have pointed out that the proposed rule could likely increase the wages for highly skilled workers like H-1B visa holders.
This rule only talks about the changes in the wage levels for foreign nationals and not locals.
The department of labor will determine the wages in each region and for each occupation.
Wages for software engineers in California and Texas will be different.
The prevailing wages for the software engineers in California and Texas as recognized by the DOL are as below:
There are currently four levels of wages for H-1B workers with different levels of experience.
IF Level 1 is meant for the entry level employees, level 4 is for those with relevant experience.
In California, the wages for level 2 employees stands at $120,931 per year. However, in Texas, the wages for the same level 2 employees stand at $80,766 a year.
These are the minimum wages paid to the employees in these areas.
Indian IT firms too comply with the wage requirements. A report shows that the H-1B wages have increased sharply over the last two years for the IT companies.
The report also revealed that the HCL Tech pays the highest salaries and the median stands at $92,000.
Meanwhile, TCS offers the lowest salaries and the median stands at $77,500.
These changes in the rules will impact the IT firms which are the biggest beenfiters of the visas.
IT firms account for 85,000 H-1B visas issued every year and Indians account for more than 1 lakh visas issued every year.
If the new rule becomes operational, the IT firms will have to pay increased wages to the employees which in turn would also increase the costs for the companies.
