{"id":449,"date":"2026-05-23T04:37:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T04:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=449"},"modified":"2026-05-23T04:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T04:37:06","slug":"trumps-labor-department-is-making-critical-mistake-with-immigration-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=449","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Labor Department Is Making Critical Mistake With Immigration Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><!-- \/10519169\/dailycaller_incontent_1 --> <\/p>\n<p><span>Since President Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025, layoffs of hundreds of thousands of white-collar\/professional workers have swept through the tech sector. At the same time, major corporations keep insisting they face severe labor shortages requiring ever expanding access to the H-1B visa program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=447\">Donald Trump Tosses Stephen Colbert Into A Dumpster In Edited Video<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>This is fueling criticism of the H-1B system. More Americans are beginning to question whether the program is really being used to fill genuine labor shortages or whether companies are increasingly using it to cut labor costs and undercut domestic workers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That growing backlash is one reason the U.S. Department of Labor has proposed a new H-1B wage <\/span><span>rule<\/span><span> that is being promoted as a major reform designed to better protect American workers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>However, a closer review of the proposed rule change informs us it will preserve many of the same financial incentives that make the system so contentious in the first place. <strong>(<\/strong><\/span><span><b>RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Trump Admin Closes Loophole Letting Migrants Stay In US While Awaiting Green Cards)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At the center of this debate is the \u201cprevailing wage\u201d which is the minimum salary an employer must pay an H-1B worker. Most people would reasonably assume it means companies must pay foreign workers something close to the market rate already being earned by Americans in the same occupation and location. Regrettably, that is not how the system works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/10519169\/dailycaller_incontent_2 --> <\/p>\n<p><span>The government divides wages into four levels. For years, Level I wages were set around the 17th percentile. Put differently, employers could legally pay H-1B workers less than what more than 80 percent of workers in the same field were already making. The new proposal would raise Level I to around the 34th percentile. That sounds substantial until you realize employers would still be allowed to pay H-1B workers below what most workers in the occupation already earn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Companies routinely describe H-1B workers as uniquely skilled talent critical to America\u2019s competitiveness. If that is true, why should employers be allowed to fill those positions at below-market wages?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The tiered wage structure encourages employers to cluster around lower-paying classifications. Level II wages are already set around the 34th percentile, and Level II is where many H-1B petitions are filed today. Raising Level I to the 34th percentile may not meaningfully change employer behavior at all. Companies will simply reclassify more positions into the revised Level I category while continuing to pay below market rates. <\/span>The classifications change, but the discount remains. <strong>(RELATED: GOP Lawmaker Mike Lawler Attempts To Resurrect Amnesty Plan)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=445\">Tom Hardy Reportedly Not Returning To \u2018Mobland\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/10519169\/dailycaller_incontent_3 --> <\/p>\n<p><span>Consider what this looks like in practice. In San Jose, the median wage for a software engineer runs roughly $140,000 a year. Under the proposed rule, an employer could classify an H-1B worker at Level I and pay around $95,000, with full government approval, while simultaneously telling Congress they cannot find enough qualified Americans. That $45,000 gap is not a rounding error. Multiplied across hundreds of positions, it represents an enormous structural subsidy extracted from American wage standards.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The deeper problem is conceptual. Any wage floor set below the median mathematically guarantees that H-1B workers will cost less than the typical American in the same role. The 34th percentile does not represent a reasonable compromise. In fact, it represents a built-in discount written into federal regulation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There is also the problem of private wage surveys. The federal government collects extensive wage data through its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics system, but employers are still allowed to rely on private surveys\u00a0that can produce dramatically lower estimates depending on how they are designed. For large corporations hiring thousands of workers, even small wage differences translate into enormous labor-cost savings. <strong>(RELATED: Trump Greases Wheels Of Deportation Machine With New Immigration Judges)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If the federal government genuinely wants to protect American workers while preserving a narrowly tailored high-skilled visa program, the fixes are not complicated. Level I wages should be raised much closer to the local median, not merely the 34th percentile. <\/span>(Level I compensation should begin no lower than the 75th percentile for the relevant occupation and geographic area.) <span>Private wage surveys that artificially depress estimates should be sharply restricted. The Department of Labor should modernize enforcement with stronger audits.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The department already has the authority to do this \u2014 the question is whether it is willing to use that authority aggressively enough to confront the interests that benefit from the current system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It is 2026, and millions of Americans are paying close attention. They were promised an immigration system that puts our workers first \u2014 not one that pays lip service while quietly preserving the same business incentives behind the scenes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Kevin Lynn is the Executive Director of The Institute for Sound Public Policy.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=443\">EXCLUSIVE: Woke DC Coffee Chain Sued After Dropping Author Over Transgender Book<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since President Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025, layoffs of white-collar\/professional workers have swept through the tech sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[789,790,65,791],"class_list":["post-449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-department-of-labor","tag-h1-b-visa","tag-immigration","tag-tech-layoffs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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