New bill proposes to increase it to $140,000. What is the H-1B visa threshold?
The $60,000 threshold was set in 1998 and was intended to be twice the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) National Average Wage Index at the time. Today, the SSA National Average Wage Index is nearly $70,000, meaning the original threshold, adjusted for inflation, would be nearly $140,000, the Republican leaders said. At a time when Vice President JD Vance announced that he would like the H-1B visa program to be abolished, a few Republican leaders have proposed a new legislation to increase the salary threshold of the H-1B visa holders so that there is no scope for American companies to hire foreign employees at a cheaper rate.
Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-WI) introduced the Protecting American Workers Through H-1B Modernization Act, which would close an outdated loophole that allows H-1B dependent employers to bypass certain American worker protections. Senator Jon Husted (R-OH) has introduced companion legislation in the Senate.
“American workers should come first in their own country,” said Grothman. This bill simply asks that when a company is heavily reliant on these visas and wants to bring in more H-1B workers, they shouldn’t be relying on an outdated law to get around offering these jobs to qualified American workers first,” said Husted. “Employers should not be able to use a salary threshold established nearly three decades ago to bypass protections for qualified Americans. There is no excuse for leaving this threshold unchanged when it should have been raised years ago. Washington’s failure to act shows how little the Establishment cares about unemployed Americans when employers want access to cheap foreign labor. This bill would update that threshold and help ensure American workers have a fair opportunity to compete for these jobs. That’s not modernization, that’s a loophole. It has never been adjusted for inflation.