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The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires that the hiring of a foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers comparably employed. To comply with the statute, the Department's regulations require that the wages offered to a foreign worker must be the prevailing wage rate for the occupational classification in the area of employment.

The prevailing wage rate is defined as the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific occupation in the area of intended employment. Effective January 4, 2010, employers can obtain this wage rate by submitting a request to the National Prevailing Wage Center (NPWC), or by accessing other legitimate sources of information such as the Online Wage Library, available for use in some programs.

The requirement to pay prevailing wages as a minimum is true of most employment based visa programs involving the Department of Labor. In addition, the H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 programs require the employer to pay the prevailing wage or the actual wage paid by the employer to workers with similar skills and qualifications, whichever is higher.

The prevailing wage information provided on this page pertains to the Nonagricultural Immigration Programs (PERM, H-2B, H-1B, H-1B1, H-1C and E-3).

To request a prevailing wage determination (PWD) for a Nonagricultural Immigration Program (PERM, H-1B, H-1B1, H-2b and E-3) employers must complete the ETA Form 9141 and submit it to the National Prevailing Wage Center.

Disclosure data includes prevailing wage determinations issued from the OFLC iCERT Visa Portal System between January 20 and September 30, 2010 when employers began electronic filing of requests for prevailing wage determinations. Prior to January 1, 2010, all prevailing wage determinations were received and processed by State Workforce Agencies. No national level electronic record data are available.