House bill seeks $140,000 H-1B wage floor

A Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill in the US House of Representatives to more than double the salary threshold that lets H-1B-dependent employers skip American-worker protections, a move that could hit Indian IT firms and professionals.

The bill, H.R. 10799, was introduced on October 13 by Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin and referred to the House Judiciary Committee. It has no cosponsors yet.

It is the House companion to S. 5638, the Protecting American Workers Through H-1B Modernisation Act, introduced by Senator Jon Husted of Ohio on September 30. The two measures now give the proposal a bicameral footing.

Under current law, H-1B-dependent employers, companies whose H-1B workers make up more than a set share of their workforce, must attest that they first tried to hire American workers before sponsoring more visa holders. They are exempt if they pay the H-1B worker at least $60,000 a year, or if the worker holds a master’s degree or higher.

The $60,000 figure was set in 1998 at about twice the Social Security Administration’s national average wage index and has never been adjusted. The bill would replace it with a moving standard of twice the index, which Grothman’s office puts at nearly $140,000 today.

“American workers should come first in their own country,” Grothman said in a statement. “Employers should not be able to use a salary threshold established nearly three decades ago to bypass protections for qualified Americans.”

Husted said in the same release that the threshold “hasn’t budged since 1998. That’s not modernisation, that’s a loophole.”

Indian nationals receive the bulk of H-1B visas each year, and large Indian and Indian-origin IT services companies are among the employers most likely to be classified as H-1B dependent.

The House is out until after the November 3 midterm elections, and the bill is unlikely to move before then.

The proposal is the latest in a string of H-1B measures in Congress. Rep. Beth Van Duyne of Texas introduced H.R. 10643 on October 1 to raise penalties for wilful displacement of American workers to $250,000.