The iCert System

H-1B Prevailing Wage Claims vs. Reality:
What They Say, Versus What They Pay

By Robert Hill, CUNY, Murphy Institute for Worker Education

Recent Changes In Data Collection:

The iCert System

This study replicates previously published research (Miano, 2007) on the question of whether employers are categorically paying H-1B visa “guest workers” lower wages than they would have to pay domestic workers in specified jobs. Previous research was plagued by systemic problems, however, that made it both difficult and arbitrary to compare H-1B data to Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) data.  Recent changes in what data the government collects and publishes obviate these problems and make such comparisons both more accurate and more relevant. 

Specifically, in the old system of accounting job descriptions and wage claims were both arbitrary and unrelated to official OES statistics. In the new system, virtually all Labor Condition Applications (LCA’s) reference specific Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) data in their declarations of LCA wages and prevailing wages. This is because the new iCert system for processing LCAs has a feature that integrates an OES database search for prevailing wages into the LCA creation process. At the same time, the new iCert system requires that LCAs be referenced to the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes, which eliminates the previous confusion about which job titles should be associated with which salary information.

 

[Introduction] [History] [LCA  / H-1B Process] [For And Against] [Previous Research] [The iCert System] [Methodology (text)] [Methodology (videos)] [Results] [Discussion] [Conclusions] [Downloadable Files] [External Links]

© 2011, Robert Hill, http://roberthill.org