DOL Announces How it Will Implement Recent Changes to Prevailing Wage Guidelines

By: Min Kim

The Department of Labor (DOL) has announced how it will handle prevailing wage determinations for H-1B visas, employment-based green cards, and other visas after a federal district court set aside a DOL regulation that significantly increased prevailing wages. The DOL will revert back to the lower prevailing wage data that was in effect before the rule, and will begin accepting labor condition applications (LCA) with this data on December 9, 2020.

Implementation of Previous prevailing wage data

DOL will discontinue using the higher prevailing wage data that went into effect on October 8, 2020. Employers can begin submitting H-1B labor condition applications (Form ETA-9035/9035E) using previous lower prevailing wage data beginning around 8:30 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on December 9, 2020.

The National Prevailing Wage Center (NPWC) will temporarily stop processing pending Applications for Prevailing Wage Determination (Forms ETA 9141) for LCA and PERM applications. On December 15, 2020, the NPWC will resume processing prevailing wage determinations using pre-regulation data. Employers and their attorneys may continue filing requests for prevailing wage determinations at any time during this pause.

Employers can request DOL to review prevailing wage determinations that were issued between October 8 and December 4, 2020 using the new, higher prevailing wage data. Employers should submit requests for review by January 4, 2021.

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Our professionals are closely monitoring this situation and will provide updates as soon as they are available.  For more information on calculating prevailing wages for your employee, or for any other case-specific questions including requests for reviews of prevailing wage determinations, please contact your trusted Chugh, LLP attorney.