As you might recall, The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) introduced a new Application for Prevailing Wage Determination Form, ETA 9141, to be submitted to the DOL for determining prevailing wages back in April 2021. The new Form ETA 9141 had gone into effect beginning May 3, 2021, for prevailing wage determination requests.
The results of requests filed using the new form were expected to be declared in OFLC’s average processing time of 145 days. This means that the results are due soon, and you should be watching closely OFLC’s updates regarding this issue. Because Prevailing Wage Determination results are expected soon, we believe that giving a recap on the new Form and the process that follows might be beneficial for persons of interest.
With the new form ETA 9141, OFLC devised a more detailed and comprehensive roadmap for the determination of prevailing wages by its Certifying Officers (CO). The primary procedural changes revised the way an employer provides primary and alternative requirements for a job position on ETA 9141, and how OFLC evaluates and determines the prevailing wage accordingly to provided requirements.
Previously, OFLC determined the prevailing wage solely based on the primary requirements provided by the employer.With the New Form ETA 9141, OFLC now reviews both the primary and alternate requirements and determines two separate prevailing wages for each set of requirements. Furthermore, the higher of the two prevailing wages is made mandatory for employers to use on Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) and Program Electric Review Management (PERM) applications.
This change implemented by Form ETA 9141 is of great importance since it might entail significant prevailing wage increases. For instance, for the job position Software Developers, Applications in Seattle, Washington, the prevailing wage determined with the new ETA 9141 produced more than a $20.000 increase per year on the prevailing wage determined with the old ETA 9141 Form (From $140,920 per year to $162,510 per year).
Lastly, the new procedural change also applies to LCAs with which the employer determines its own prevailing wage according to the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES). Prevailing wages determined via OES are also subjected to this change.
