DOL WAGES: LAWSUITS AND ALTERNATIVE SURVEYS

DOL WAGES: LAWSUITS AND ALTERNATIVE SURVEYS

At our recent webinar, MU attorneys discussed the new DOL wage rule and how it could greatly raise prevailing wages for H-1B petitions and EB-2 and EB-3 green cards.  More on this topic here.   We want to give our clients and friends two updates: 

1.   Lawsuit.  MU along with some clients and the US Chamber of Commerce have been working on a lawsuit against both the DOL and the USCIS.  US Chamber of Commerce press release.  The lawsuit seeks to overturn both the new DOL wage computation used in their OES wage survey, and the three harsh changes to the H-1B definition.  The lawsuit was filed last week and there is a hearing on the case set for November 23.  If successful, the DOL and USCIS regulations could be nullified. 

2.   Alternative Wage Surveys.  The new DOL rule only raises the OES survey, which is the default survey used in H-1B cases, and in PWDs, which are used in EB-2 and EB-3 green card petitions.  The law still allows “alternative surveys.”  An alternative survey is any published or private survey that meets common statistical metrics, is recent, is geographically relevant, and covers the position in question.  

MU has identified several surveying companies that can be used for problematic wages.  As MU works your cases, we will let you know if we think that a survey may be a strategy worth pursuing.