Proposed Changes to Foreign Worker Wages and the H-1B Visa Program
A big move is happening with the US administration, trying to completely shake up how skilled migration works. They’ve proposed a major bump to the minimum wages foreign workers have to accept under the H-1B visa program.
The Department of Labour is leading this push. They want to raise prevailing wage floors by about thirty percent across different experience levels. The argument is simple: stop foreign labor from just pushing down the salaries of American workers. Make sure the program is for supplementing the domestic workforce, not just replacing it.
This proposal is officially titled something kind of mouthful: “Improving Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Foreign Nationals in the United States.” It’s targeting that whole four-tiered wage structure that’s been running H-1B hiring for twenty years now.
The changes hit the entry level the hardest. For those starting out, Level I positions, the minimum salary requirement is set to jump. It’s moving from the 17th percentile of local wages up to the 34th. That’s a jump of nearly thirty-three percent.
And for the most seasoned pros, Level IV, the top tier, it moves from the 67th to the 88th percentile, hitting $175,464.
The DOL says this is necessary because the current wage levels are just frozen in time, they don’t reflect what’s actually happening in the market right now. They argue that letting employers hire foreign nationals at rates way below what similarly employed Americans make just encourages what they call “wage arbitrage.”
And it’s not just H-1B. Officials are pushing this methodology to apply to everything. H-1B1s, those from Chile and Singapore, E-3s for Australians, and even the PERM process for Green cards. The goal, they claim, is that if a company hires a foreign professional, it has to be because there’s a real skill shortage, not just because they want cheap labor.
Right now, this whole thing is up for a public comment period. It’s running for sixty days, ending on May 26, 2026. After that, the DOL reviews what people say before they announce the final rule.
The reaction from the private sector is totally split. Labor groups are cheering this, calling it a long-overdue protection for American tech workers. But industry giants and universities? They are deeply worried.
There’s a lot of pushback. Critics are pointing out that a sudden thirty percent spike in labor costs could absolutely crush smaller companies and startups. They worry about the talent pipeline. If hiring someone entry-level becomes too expensive, maybe companies just look to offshore operations. That could weaken the whole system the US has built up over decades.
This proposal isn’t entirely new, though. It looks a lot like an attempt made during the first Trump administration back in 2021. That attempt got blocked by the courts and then pulled back by the Biden team. But this time, the groundwork seems different. It’s based on a Presidential Proclamation from September 2025, which gives it a stronger footing.
For the thousands of Indian IT professionals who make up the biggest chunk of H-1B beneficiaries, these next two weeks feel critical. If this gets finalized, it won’t retroactively change past decisions. It won’t affect old hires. But it will apply to every new Labor Condition Application and renewal submitted after the effective date. It fundamentally changes the whole equation of the American dream for them.
Written by Gree News Team — Senior Editorial Board
Gree News Team covers international news and global affairs at Gree News. Our collective of senior editors is dedicated to providing independent, accurate, and responsible journalism for a global audience.
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