What Happens If the Prevailing Wage Is Higher Than Your Employee’s Salary? When the prevailing wage comes back higher than what your sponsor
Prevailing Wage Too High? What Employers & Immigrants Need to Know
What Happens If the Prevailing Wage Is Higher Than Your Employee’s Salary? When the prevailing wage comes back higher than what your sponsored foreign worker is currently earning, it can be a shock for employers. Under labor certification (PERM) rules, you must be willing to pay the certified wage by the time the worker receives their green card, not necessarily right now. In this video, US immigration attorney Loren Locke breaks down what this means in practical terms for employers, HR executives, and foreign workers navigating the employment-based immigration process.
The labor certification process is the first major step in many employer-sponsored green card cases, whether you’re filing for EB-2 or EB-3. We’ll discuss why the prevailing wage is locked in at a fixed dollar amount and doesn’t adjust for inflation or cost of living, and how long waits in the visa bulletin can actually make this requirement easier to meet through annual raises. From foreign labor certification rules to potential labor certification waivers, you’ll learn what strategies employers can use to plan ahead without breaking the budget.
For H-1B visa holders, the stakes are even higher. Suppose certain milestones in the PERM labor certification process aren’t met before the six-year limit. In that case, workers risk losing their work visa status and becoming unauthorized to work in the U.S. We’ll explain how the immigrant petition timeline, per-country caps, and backlog realities — especially for workers born in India and China — impact both employers and employees. Our insights are derived from real-world experience as a U.S. immigration attorney handling complex employment-based immigration cases.
Whether you’re an HR manager learning how to navigate the labor certification PERM process or a foreign worker wondering how a prevailing wage too high finding will affect your case, this video will give you the tools to plan ahead. We’ll cover current H1B visa news, immigration law updates, and practical advice from Locke Immigration Law to help you understand every step. If you’ve been asking, “What employers & immigrants need to know about prevailing wage?” — this is your guide.
Locke Immigration Law helps American companies and skilled immigrants work together. Send us your information to see if we can help you: https://form.fillout.com/t/pHYN45z9aBus Follow Loren Locke on LinkedIn: / lorenlocke
Want to learn how to strategically frame your achievements for the EB1A "Extraordinary Ability" visa? My free 5-day email course, "5 Days to Your Compelling EB1A Story," provides the 'EB1A Storytelling Toolkit' to help you build a powerful case. Sign up here: https://lockeimmigration.com/eb1a-ema... Prevailing Wage Too High? What Employers & Immigrants Need to Know
⏱ Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:47 How visa bulletin delays affect labor certification timing
01:17 Example: Indians with 2012 priority dates now filing Adjustment of Status
02:45 Why prevailing wage is locked and doesn’t adjust for inflation 03:51 Impact on Indian and Chinese-born workers due to demand 04:38 Why companies file green cards even if they don’t care about the outcome
05:20 Employees’ retirement and long-term green card goals
05:53 Outro
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