[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1606 Introduced in House (IH)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1606
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to impose a limitation on
the wage that the Secretary of Labor may require an employer to pay an
alien who is an H-2A nonimmigrant agricultural worker.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 3, 2003
Mr. Goode introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to impose a limitation on
the wage that the Secretary of Labor may require an employer to pay an
alien who is an H-2A nonimmigrant agricultural worker.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Wage Equity Act of 2003''.
SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON H-2A NONIMMIGRANT WAGE REQUIREMENT.
(a) Conditions for Approval of H-2A Petitions.--Section 218(a) of
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1188(a)) is amended by
redesignating paragraph (2) as paragraph (3) and by inserting after
paragraph (1) the following new paragraph:
``(2)(A) In making the certification described in paragraph (1),
the Secretary of Labor may not require an employer to pay workers more
than the greater of--
``(i) the prevailing wage for seasonal agricultural workers
in the occupation in the area of intended employment, or
``(ii) the greater of the hourly wage described in section
6(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C.
206(a)(1)), or the applicable State minimum wage.
``(B) In complying with subparagraph (A)(i), an employer (or the
employer's agent) may request and obtain a prevailing wage
determination from the State employment security agency. An employer
who obtains such a determination and pays the wage determined to be
prevailing shall be considered to have met the requirement of
subparagraph (A)(i).
``(C) In lieu of the procedure described in subparagraph (B), an
employer may rely on other wage information, including a survey of the
prevailing wages of workers in the occupation in the area of intended
employment that has been conducted or funded by the employer or a group
of employers, that meets criteria specified by the Secretary of Labor
in regulations.
``(D) If the prevailing wage described in subparagraph (A)(i) is an
hourly wage, the employer may pay workers in the occupation by an
incentive method of pay such as a piece rate, task rate, group
incentive rate, or other incentive method, if the average hourly
earnings of the employer's workers paid by such incentive method, taken
as a group, are at least equal to the prevailing hourly wage required
by subparagraph (A)(i) for the hours worked at the incentive payment
method, after making any additions to any worker's pay required to
comply subparagraph (A)(ii).''.
(b) Definitions.--Section 218(i) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (8 U.S.C. 1188(i)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(3) The term `prevailing wage' means, with respect to an
agricultural occupation in an area of intended employment, the
rate of wages that includes the 51st percentile of employees
with similar experience and qualifications in the agricultural
occupation in the area of intended employment, expressed in
terms of the prevailing method of pay for the occupation in the
area of intended employment.''.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims.
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