H-1B – Designed for Cheap Labor
Read the statute carefully and it’s clear what Congress intended
By John Miano on August 5, 2025
I recently walked through the H-1B statutes to show how Congress has affirmatively designed the H-1B visas to make it legal to replace Americans.
Let me now do the same to show how Congress has made it legal to pay H-1B workers low wages, the second half of Congress’s design of the H-1B program.
As shown previously, the H-1B statutes are overly long and deliberately deceptive. When you read them, you have to read very carefully. The first step in getting an H-1B visa is to file a Labor Condition Application (LCA) with the Department of Labor. In the LCA the employer certifies – and that is the operative verb – the prevailing wage, the wage paid to the employee, and that the employer is conforming other labor-related requirements.
If you go to the top of the section on LCAs at 8 U.S.C. § 1182(n)(1) you find regarding H-1B wages.
(1) No alien may be admitted or provided status as an H–1B nonimmigrant in an occupational classification unless the employer has filed with the Secretary of Labor an application stating the following:
(A) The employer—
(i) is offering and will offer during the period of authorized employment to aliens admitted or provided status as an H–1B nonimmigrant wages that are at least—
(I) the actual wage level paid by the employer to all other individuals with similar experience and qualifications for the specific employment in question, or
(II) the prevailing wage level for the occupational classification in the area of employment, whichever is greater, based on the best information available as of the time of filing the application,
https://cis.org/Miano/H1B-Designed-Cheap-Labor
