The Donald Trump administration is doubling down on its H-1B policy overhaul plans. In addition to the already imposed new $100,000 blanket fee weighing heavily on the work visa applicants and their potential US employers, the US has proposed to raise the wage threshold maintained for hiring a foreign-born employee under the ‘specialty occupations’ program by 30%.
The US Department of Labour (DOL) officially issued the proposed rule on March 26 (US time), revising prevailing wage methodology in permanent (PERM) labour certifications programs, and H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 visa categories. By doing so, the Trump administration sought to “protect the wages and job opportunities of American workers by stripping away the ability of employers to pay substandard wages to foreign workers in certain visa programs.”
Amid heightened backlash targeting the visa program’s alleged distortion of hiring practices to “abuse” it and “replace” the existing American workforce with cheap foreign labour, Bloomberg and PTI reports have finally shed light on what the revised wage figures would look like.
H-1B workers could get more expensive for US employers
Titled “Improving Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Foreign Nationals in the United States,” the proposed rule challenges the wage levels established 20 years ago due to their failure to protect US workers, as argued by the Trump admin.
The existing wage levels set for entry-level foreign workers were $73,279 per annum, $98,987 (Level II), $121,979 (Level III), and $144,202 (Level IV). These levels vary for different cities.
However, a Bloomberg report now suggests that an entry-level software engineer in San Francisco would need to be paid $162,000 per annum to qualify for the H-1B work visa if the proposal is officially enacted. The hike signifies an almost 30% jump from today’s figures. Consequently, Dallas would also see a similar jump to $113,000 and New York to $132,000.
The potential surge in minimum hiring wages for H-1B workers will ultimately cost employers of white-collar foreign talent at least $18 billion in the first 12 months, according to an analysis by immigration data companies Lawfully and Threshold, as cited by Bloomberg. Given these estimations, the annual cost could go as high as $43 billion, according to the reported study.
Such exponentially rising charges could ultimately take a toll on foreign talent, including tech professionals from India, who largely count on the H-1B visa opportunity to create better lives in the United States. If the proposal is formally passed, the minimum wage hike won’t just affect techies, as the H-1B visa is also used to hire professionals in the research and education, civil engineering, finance, and medicine sectors.
No matter what the case, the wage hike will hit Indians harder than anyone else, especially since the South Asian country’s nationals have received over 70% of all H-1B visas reserved for highly skilled workers in recent years.
The $100,000 fee and wage-based policy proposal have already triggered an unaffordability crisis among certain employers. According to a New York Times report citing official data, there’s been a 15% fall in applications, with changes especially hitting small employers hard.
US DOL data cited by Business Insider last month also indicated that H-1B visa filings across 20 of the largest users of the H-1B visa program in finance had fallen by roughly 25% year-on-year during the quarter.
JPMorgan Chase registered the biggest drop in volume, with applications falling from 724 in October-December 2024 to 516 in 2025 during the same period, marking a nearly 29% slump. Meanwhile Goldman Sachs also witnessed a staggering percentage fall, as filing dropped from 256 to 101, marking a decline of over 60%.
When to expect an update on the new H-1B hiring wage rule?
On May 26, the window for public comments related to the proposal will finally close. Thereafter, the US Department of Labor will analyse the response and come to a final decision about the rule.
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