DOL H-1B and PERM Wage Rule: Comment Period Closes May 26

On March 27, 2026, the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration (ETA) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would significantly raise prevailing wage levels for the H-1B, H-1B1, E-3, and PERM labor certification programs. Today is May 11, 2026. The 60-day public comment period closes on May 26, leaving 15 days for employers, sponsored workers, and counsel to weigh in before the agency turns to a final rule.

The proposal does not change the four-tier wage structure or the underlying Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey. It changes the percentile thresholds. If finalized, DOL projects an average increase of roughly $14,000 in the certified annual wage per affected worker, based on FY 2020-2024 prevailing wage data.

1. What the rule actually changes

The Federal Register notice, [Improving Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Foreign Nationals in the United States](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/03/27/2026-06017/improving-wage-protections-for-the-temporary-and-permanent-employment-of-certain-foreign-nationals) (91 FR 15454), proposes to amend 20 CFR Parts 655 and 656 to recompute the four OEWS-based wage levels DOL uses for the PERM program and Labor Condition Applications (LCAs).

The proposed percentile shifts are:

• Wage Level I (entry-level): from the 17th percentile to the 34th percentile.
• Wage Level II (qualified): from the 34th percentile to the 52nd percentile.
• Wage Level III (experienced): from the 50th percentile to the 70th percentile.
• Wage Level IV (fully competent): from the 67th percentile to the 88th percentile.

2. What this means in dollars

Bloomberg, [in its May 8 reporting on the proposal](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-08/trump-s-h-1b-visa-proposal-requires-salary-increases-for-entry-level-jobs), illustrated the impact for an entry-level software engineer. Under the proposed Level I, an H-1B candidate in San Francisco would need to be paid roughly $162,000 per year - about a 30% increase over today's Level I wage for that occupation and area. The comparable Level I figure would be approximately $132,000 in New York and $113,000 in Dallas.

Those numbers will vary by Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code, geographic area, and the underlying OEWS data, but they capture the basic dynamic: entry-level and early-career H-1B and PERM-sponsored hires bear the largest proportional increase, because Level I doubles its percentile floor.

3. Who is affected

The proposed rule reaches every program that uses DOL's prevailing wage methodology:

• H-1B specialty occupation employers (the program most affected by volume).
• H-1B1 employers sponsoring Chilean and Singaporean nationals.
• E-3 employers sponsoring Australian nationals.
• PERM-based EB-2 and EB-3 sponsorships, including National Interest Waiver cases where an employer files a PERM as part of a parallel or backup track. (Self-petition NIW filings without a PERM are not directly affected by the methodology change, but downstream employer offers may still need to align with the new floors.)

4. What attorneys should know

The proposal is structurally familiar. It revives the approach of the 2020 Interim Final Rule (85 FR 63872), which similarly raised the four-tier OEWS wage levels and was enjoined on procedural grounds before being withdrawn by the Biden administration in 2021. The 2026 NPRM (RIN 1205-AC30) reaches the wage-level result through a procedurally orthodox notice-and-comment posture, which makes a procedural Administrative Procedure Act challenge harder than it was in 2020. Substantive challenges, including arguments that the new percentiles are not statistically grounded in the INA's experience-and-education tiers, remain available.

Several scope details from the NPRM text matter for case planning:

• Effective scope is prospective. The new wage levels would apply to Prevailing Wage Determinations pending with the OFLC National Processing Center on the effective date and to LCAs or PWD requests filed on or after that date.
• Already-certified PERMs, approved LCAs, and previously approved PWDs would not be reopened.
• FY2027 H-1B cap registrations and selections are expected to be unaffected, since cap LCAs will be filed before any final rule's effective date.
• Private wage surveys remain available as an alternative to the DOL OEWS figures when they meet the regulatory criteria under 20 CFR 656.40 and 20 CFR 655.731.

5. What employers and applicants should do now

There are 15 days left in the comment window. Practical steps that can be taken in that time:

• Inventory pending and near-term cases. Identify any H-1B amendment, H-1B extension, H-1B transfer, or PERM filing where the PWD has not yet been requested or remains pending. These are the cases most exposed if the final rule takes effect quickly.
• Pull current Level I and Level II positions for review. The largest proportional wage jumps land on Level I and Level II roles, which is where most early-career H-1B and PERM filings sit.
• Model the budget impact across the entire sponsorship pipeline, not just the next case. PERM ability-to-pay analysis at the I-140 stage will need to support the new wage floor for cases filed after the rule's effective date.
• Consider whether a compliant private wage survey is a viable alternative for specific positions. This is still available under the proposed rule.
• If the rule will materially affect your hiring or career, file a comment. Comments are accepted at Regulations.gov under Docket No. [ETA-2026-0001](https://www.regulations.gov/docket/ETA-2026-0001) through May 26, 2026.

6. Wider policy context

The wage rule does not arrive in isolation. It implements the [September 19, 2025 Presidential Proclamation on Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/restriction-on-entry-of-certain-nonimmigrant-workers/), which directed DOL to revise H-1B prevailing wage protections and also imposed the [$100,000 fee on certain new H-1B petitions](/blog/trump-100000-h1b-fee-explained) for workers abroad. The DHS-side companion is the weighted H-1B cap selection process, which gives higher-wage registrations greater odds in the lottery starting with the FY 2027 cap season.

Together, the three measures move the H-1B and PERM cost curve and the H-1B selection odds in the same direction at the same time. For employers, that means the wage rule alone undersells the planning challenge. For sponsored workers, it means that even where the wage rule does not reach a current case, the cumulative posture of the program is shifting.