More than 25,000 “guest” workers just received substantial raises, thanks to a new method of calculating prevailing wages.
Under federal law, employers who import temporary workers from other countries are required to pay the local prevailing wage. But until last month, those wages were calculated according to a formula adopted during the Bush administration. The recent change in regulations means that guest workers will now be paid at substantially higher rates – discouraging employers from “importing” foreign workers in order to pay them less than local workers.
In our increasingly globalized economy, it’s not just merchandise that gets imported and exported – workers move across national boundaries, too. Right now, more than 25,000 foreign nationals work here in the US under the H2-B “temporary worker” program. Employers throughout the United States – including hundreds here in New England – rely heavily on the H2-B visa program.
