Employer usage of the H-2B temporary visa program has grown dramatically in recent years, despite inadequate protections for workers and rules undercutting U.S. wage standards, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). EPI encouraged policymakers to pursue a high-road employment strategy in which workers have full labor and workplace rights accompanied by lawful permanent resident status, which would raise wages and spur investment.
Vital Law
September 26, 2025
Last week, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation declaring a requirement that employers pay a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas. The announcement has created considerable outcry from employers, reflecting H-1B’s status as the country’s biggest work visa program and an important pathway for U.S. employers to hire skilled talent from abroad. To my surprise, Trump’s proclamation seemed to cite a study that I co-authored for the Economic Policy Institute, showing how some employers have taken advantage of the visa to underpay college-educated employees.
It’s true that the H-1B program is deeply flawed. But the $100,000 fee on employers won’t fix what’s wrong with the program and could have unintended consequences. Large firms and those that already pay lower wages will have less difficulty paying the fee, while startups and smaller firms that offer fair or above-market wages will struggle to pay it. Rather than the administration’s misguided and poorly implemented idea, there are much better ways to protect workers, whether they are H-1B employees or U.S.-born workers or green card holders already employed in the United States.
MSNBC.com
September 26, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute identifies 100 specific actions by the Trump administration (in the first 100 days) that “threaten to slow wage growth while also raising prices, constraining workers’ purchasing power.” Their report concludes that from, “attacks on workers’ rights to his chaotic implementation of historically high tariffs, and his dismantling of critical federal agencies and programs…Trump’s actions have left workers with fewer rights and have put the U.S. economy on a path toward an almost certain recession” (“100 ways Trump has hurt workers in his first 100 days, April 25, 2025).
Duluth Reader
September 25, 2025
Meanwhile, most people within the bottom 80% of the income distribution rely on wages for wealth accumulation. Wages don’t grow nearly as quickly as assets. For instance, the S&P 500 has doubled over the past five years. On the other hand, wage growth increased by 15.3% for the lowest earners over the past five years, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis.
Benzinga (via Yahoo! Finance)
September 25, 2025
Samuel Gregg makes a fine case for why “H-1B Visas Are Good for U.S. Workers” (op-ed, Sept. 22). But there is an even more fundamental problem with President Trump’s proposed $100,000 fee: The policy is based on bad research. Mr. Trump’s order evidently cites an Economic Policy Institute study claiming employers systematically underpay H-1B workers. But to arrive at that conclusion, the authors ignore that H-1B workers are, on average, much younger and earlier in their careers than their U.S. counterparts. Adjusted for age and experience, they are paid significantly more than similar native-born workers.
Wall Street Journal
September 25, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute identifies 100 specific actions by the Trump administration (in the first 100 days) that “threaten to slow wage growth while also raising prices, constraining workers’ purchasing power.” Their report concludes that from, “attacks on workers’ rights to his chaotic implementation of historically high tariffs, and his dismantling of critical federal agencies and programs…Trump’s actions have left workers with fewer rights and have put the U.S. economy on a path toward an almost certain recession” (“100 ways Trump has hurt workers in his first 100 days, April 25, 2025).
Duluth Reader
September 25, 2025
Meanwhile, most people within the bottom 80% of the income distribution rely on wages for wealth accumulation. Wages don’t grow nearly as quickly as assets. For instance, the S&P 500 has doubled over the past five years. On the other hand, wage growth increased by 15.3% for the lowest earners over the past five years, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis.
Benzinga (via Yahoo! Finance)
September 25, 2025
Samuel Gregg makes a fine case for why “H-1B Visas Are Good for U.S. Workers” (op-ed, Sept. 22). But there is an even more fundamental problem with President Trump’s proposed $100,000 fee: The policy is based on bad research. Mr. Trump’s order evidently cites an Economic Policy Institute study claiming employers systematically underpay H-1B workers. But to arrive at that conclusion, the authors ignore that H-1B workers are, on average, much younger and earlier in their careers than their U.S. counterparts. Adjusted for age and experience, they are paid significantly more than similar native-born workers.
Wall Street Journal
September 25, 2025
According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, average hourly wages in industries employing H-2B visa workers were as much as 22% lower than national average hourly wages. The H-2B program is used for nonagricultural temporary workers, primarily in landscaping, construction and hospitality industries.
The Center Square
September 25, 2025
The White House has defended the new H-1B visa application fee, stating it is intended to level the playing field for U.S. workers, who it said are being “replaced with lower-paid foreign labor.” These claims that H-1B workers are underpaid, and that their hiring leads to the underemployment of U.S. workers, were supported by a 2021 report from the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute (EPI) think tank.
“[T]he abuses of the program have been many,” EPI’s report found, “include[ing] vastly underpaying workers, laying off U.S. workers and replacing them with much lower-paid H-1B workers, forcing U.S. workers to train their H-1B replacements as a condition of receiving severance and unemployment insurance, and cheating the H-1B lottery to acquire additional visas.”
New York Amsterdam News
September 25, 2025