House Bill Seeks $140,000 H-1B Threshold, Could Affect Indian IT Firms

WASHINGTON, DC- A Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill in the US House of Representatives to raise the salary threshold that allows certain H-1B-dependent employers to bypass protections for American workers, a move that could affect Indian IT companies and professionals.

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

The measure is the House companion to S. 5638, the Protecting American Workers Through H-1B Modernization Act, introduced on September 30 by Sen. Jon Husted, an Ohio Republican. The two measures give the proposal a bicameral footing.

Under current law, H-1B-dependent employers — companies whose H-1B workers make up more than a specified share of their workforce — must attest that they first tried to hire American workers before sponsoring additional visa holders. They are exempt from this requirement 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 threshold was set in 1998 at approximately twice the Social Security Administration’s national average wage index and has never been adjusted. The bill would replace it with a moving threshold set at twice the index, which Grothman’s office estimates would amount to 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 modernization, 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 proposed change could therefore affect Indian companies and professionals, particularly where employers rely on the exemption.

The proposal would change the threshold for an exemption from certain worker-protection requirements for H-1B-dependent employers; it would not establish a $140,000 minimum salary for every H-1B visa holder.

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 (R-TX) introduced H.R. 10643 on October 1 to raise penalties for willful displacement of American workers to $250,000. (IANS)