H-1 B prevailing wage

[LCSilence]

Level II prevailing wage for software engineer is very high right now. Does it mean that these days, if you want to get H-1B approved, the employer has to pay you that high a salary, otherwise, the H-1B petition is not going to be approved? Does anybody know the H-1B approved with a wage below prevailing wage: 80K these days for software engineer?

thanks,

 

[Jim Mills]

Sure, the company can request a wage determination from INS, use a level 1 wage, or use any other alternate survey that the company feels appropriate. As long as the LCA submitted bears a lower prevailing wage than that paid to the alien then DOL will approve the LCA. The problem is only a wage determination provides a safe harbor for the employer. In the event of a DOL investigation, even paying a level 2 wage will not ensure that the company will not be sanctioned if DOL feels that wage is still too low for the position.

Wage determination, how to obtain the wage and what wage to use involve corporate decision making regarding risk vs. costs and really should be performed by the attorney with advice from the senior corporate officers. I don't know why you (as the employee) would be involved in this at all since you clearly have conflicting interests here.

The only 100% safe way is to submit a wage determination request to DOL and use the wage that they state is prevailing for that specific position.