On January 14, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a final rule titled “Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States”. This rule was the Trump Administration’s response to the federal court having set aside the October 8, 2020 interim final rule of the same title. The January 14, 2021 final rule had an effective date of March 15, 2021 with a phased implementation plan seeking to modify how DOL would compute prevailing wage rates when it uses Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) wage data to make a National Prevailing Wage Center (NPWC) wage determination or to certify a labor condition application (LCA) that relies on OES wage data. Like the October 8, 2020 rule, it would result in higher NPWC prevailing wage determinations in each OES-based wage level.   

Pursuant to the Biden Administration’s Regulatory Freeze Pending Review memorandum, the DOL published in the Federal Register on February 1, 2021 a notice of proposed delay of the effective date of the Trump Administration’s final rule on the computation of prevailing wage levels until May 14, 2021, allowing the DOL additional time to review the rule. Interested parties are encouraged to comment on the proposed delayed effective date. Any comments must be received by February 16, 2021 and can be submitted electronically; instructions regarding submission of comments are included in the notice of proposed delay.  

Foster will continue to monitor proposed regulatory action that would impact the required prevailing wage determinations for both temporary and permanent employment of foreign nationals and will make additional updates available as appropriate via future bulletins and on our firm’s website at www.fosterglobal.com.