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81–422 2013

THE SEASONAL EMPLOYMENT NEEDS OF SMALL 

TOURISM BUSINESSES AND H-2B VISA POLICY 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC GROWTH, TAX AND 

CAPITAL ACCESS 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS 

UNITED STATES 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

HEARING HELD 

JUNE 12, 2013 

Small Business Committee Document Number 113–022 

Available via the GPO Website: www.fdsys.gov 

SBREP-219 with DISTILLER


Congress.#13
(II) 

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS 

SAM GRAVES, Missouri, Chairman 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

STEVE KING, Iowa 

MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado 

BLAINE LUETKEMER, Missouri 

MICK MULVANEY, South Carolina 

SCOTT TIPTON, Colorado 

JAIME HERRERA BEUTLER, Washington 

RICHARD HANNA, New York 

TIM HUELSKAMP, Kansas 

DAVID SCHWEIKERT, Arizona 

KERRY BENTIVOLIO, Michigan 

CHRIS COLLINS, New York 

TOM RICE, South Carolina 

NYDIA VELA ́ ZQUEZ, New York, Ranking Member 

KURT SCHRADER, Oregon 

YVETTE CLARKE, New York 

JUDY CHU, California 

JANICE HAHN, California 

DONALD PAYNE, JR., New Jersey 

GRACE MENG, New York 

BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

RON BARBER, Arizona 

ANN McLANE KUSTER, New Hampshire 

PATRICK MURPHY, Florida 

LORI SALLEY, Staff Director 

PAUL SASS, Deputy Staff Director 

BARRY PINELES, Chief Counsel 

MICHAEL DAY, Minority Staff Director 

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(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

OPENING STATEMENTS 

Page 

Hon. Tom Rice .......................................................................................................... 1 

Hon. Donald Payne, Jr. ........................................................................................... 2 

WITNESSES 

Brad Dean, President & CEO, Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, 

Myrtle Beach, SC ................................................................................................. 4 

Sarah Diment, Owner, The Beachmere Inn, Ogunquit, ME ................................ 6 

William Spriggs, Chief Economist, AFL-CIO, Washington, DC .......................... 8 

Jane Nichols Bishop, President, Peak Season Workforce, Mashpee, MA ........... 11 

APPENDIX 

Prepared Statements: 

Brad Dean, President & CEO, Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, 

Myrtle Beach, SC .......................................................................................... 25 

Sarah Diment, Owner, The Beachmere Inn, Ogunquit, ME ......................... 31 

William Spriggs, Chief Economist, AFL-CIO, Washington, DC ................... 38 

Jane Nichols Bishop, President, Peak Season Workforce, Mashpee, MA .... 42 

Questions for the Record: 

None. 

Answers for the Record: 

None. 

Additional Material for the Record: 

American Hotel & Lodging Association .......................................................... 46 

Anchorage By the Sea ...................................................................................... 50 

Biltmore ............................................................................................................. 52 

Butler Landscaping .......................................................................................... 54 

The Forest Resources Association Inc. ............................................................ 55 

Hilton, Inc. ........................................................................................................ 57 

H-2B Workforce Coalition ................................................................................ 61 

Joint Written Testimony of Tom Delaney, Director of Government Affairs, 

Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) and Craig Regelbrugge, Vice 

President for Government Relations and Research, American Nursery 

and Landscape Association (ANLA) ............................................................ 93 

Keesen Landscape Management ..................................................................... 99 

Kiawah Island Golf Resort ............................................................................... 101 

Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club, Inc. ............................................................ 102 

Nemacolin Woodlands Resort .......................................................................... 103 

Pentagoet Inn .................................................................................................... 106 

SBREP-219 with DISTILLER

SBREP-219 with DISTILLER

(1) 

THE SEASONAL EMPLOYMENT NEEDS OF 

SMALL TOURISM BUSINESSES AND H-2B 

VISA POLICY 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2013 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC GROWTH, 

TAX AND CAPITAL ACCESS, 

Washington, DC. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 1:00 p.m., in Room 

2360, Rayburn House Office Building. Hon. Tom Rice [chairman of 

the subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Rice, Chabot, Coffman, Mulvaney, 

Payne, Schneider, Barber, and Keating. 

Chairman RICE. Good morning. Thank you for being here today. 

Thank you especially to our witnesses for appearing before our 

Committee, and we look forward to your testimony. 

Our small businesses in the tourism industry need to significantly increase their workforce during peak seasons. For businesses in my district, the high season is well under way. South 

Carolina’s Grand Strand is one of the top tourist destinations in 

the country but has a fairly small, year-round work population. 

From April to August, Myrtle Beach hotels, resorts, restaurants, 

and other tourism-related businesses are welcoming vacationing 

guests from across the country. Having a well-trained and reliable 

staff is a critical component to having a successful seasonal business. 

Companies located in small, often rural towns, that rely heavily 

on tourism to sustain the local economy, have a difficult time finding enough local workers to fill seasonal jobs. 

Employers that cannot find American workers to fill these seasonal jobs rely on H-2B visa programs to supplement their local 

workforce. The H-2B visa program allows businesses to bring in 

temporary foreign workers to fill lesser skilled, non-agricultural 

jobs. H-2B visas are capped at 66,000 per year nationwide. While 

the program is relatively small, it is heavily relied upon by small, 

seasonal businesses, including those in the tourism industry. 

Utilizing the H-2B program is a time-consuming and costly process which involves several agencies, including the Department of 

Labor and Department of Homeland Security. Unfortunately, these 

departments are making the process even more difficult during a 

critical time for small businesses. 

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Both the Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland 

Security recently suspended H-2B visa applications for a month. 

Although processing was restarted in late April, the suspension of 

the program caused a backlog. Some small businesses that were expecting their H-2B workers to arrive before Memorial Day are still 

waiting. Being short-staffed is leading to a strain on existing resources of small businesses. 

In addition, a recent regulatory change that is immediately effective changes the way wages are calculated for H-2B workers and 

U.S. workers recruited in connection with the H-2B process. Businesses that have received new wage rates from the Department of 

Labor since the new rule was implemented are seeing an average 

wage increase of 32 percent according to a nationwide survey. The 

impact of the increased cost is especially significant for small businesses that have set up their seasonal rates or have existing contracts. These businesses that operate on thin margins have little or 

no flexibility to offset the increased labor costs. 

I am very concerned that the H-2B program may be regulated 

out of existence. That would have a dire effect on small businesses 

that rely on this program to supplement their local workforce to 

meet their seasonal hiring needs. 

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today about the H2B visa program and its importance to small tourism businesses, 

as well as how the recent suspension of the program and regulatory change will affect small businesses that rely on the program. 

I now yield to Congressman Payne for his opening remarks. 

Mr. PAYNE. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling this hearing today. And thank you to the witnesses for joining 

us to offer their insight and experience on H-2B visa program. 

This program is a critical tool for many businesses to find the 

labor they need during peak seasons when American workers are 

not available to fill the positions. However, it is our job in Congress 

to create the right balance between promoting economic growth, 

protecting the rights of all workers, and supporting American jobs. 

Businesses large and small take advantage of the H-2B visa program to fill seasonal jobs in nonagricultural sectors for which they 

cannot find American workers. Companies in landscaping, forestry, 

tourism, seafood processing, and housing construction industries 

have high demand for H-2B visas. In order for a business to participate in the guest worker program, they must first try to recruit 

American workers. If they can prove that there is a valid labor 

shortage for these types of jobs, then they can receive a certification from the Department of Labor. They also have to pay farm 

workers the prevailing wage in the industry and insure good working conditions. 

However, in these difficult economic times, we need to ensure 

that the nearly 12 million American workers that are unemployed 

have access to good jobs with wages and that protect workers’ 

rights. We need a system that allows small businesses the access 

to the labor that they need while protecting the wages and the 

working conditions of these workers, whether they are American or 

foreign. 

The recent regulatory changes issued by the Department of 

Labor and the Department of Homeland Security have changed the 

SBREP-219 with DISTILLER

3 

methodology used to calculate the wages guest workers are paid. 

Small businesses have legitimate concerns about how these 

changes will impact them. The court mandated suspension of the 

H-2B visa program this spring created an uncertainty for many of 

the businesses who take advantage of the program, and many work 

that the new rule will disrupt small business operations because 

they have already signed contracts based on lower labor costs. They 

operate in narrow margins and are dependent on these foreign 

workers that they might not be able to get according to the Small 

Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. In theory, this program could be a great resource to both businesses and temporary 

guest workers if it is finely tuned to the market’s needs and adequately supports businesses and workers, immigrant and American 

alike. 

Unfortunately, the program today has flaws that allows bad 

players to abuse the program and the workers that participate in 

it. I have heard numerous stories proving that some employers are 

using this program to exploit foreign workers, failing to pay the appropriate wages and overtime needed, and also not supplying the 

safety equipment that these employees need. This unlawful behavior undercuts American workers and American businesses that are 

playing by the rules. 

Take, for example, the more than 500 skilled Indian H-2B guest 

workers who were lured to the United States by the shipyard company Signal International. After the promise of green cards, family 

visas, and fees up to $20,000, Signal recruited these workers to 

come to the U.S. to repair oil rigs after the damage from Hurricane 

Katrina. These workers were forced to live in work and labor 

camps under harsh conditions and were bunked 24 people to a 

room. They were threatened with deportation if they complained. 

When the workers accused Signal of illegal human trafficking, the 

company reported them to the immigration authorities. This is not 

fair to those workers, and it is not fair to Signal’s competitors that 

were following the law. 

Thankfully, not all businesses that participate in the H-2B visa 

program are bad actors like Signal, but for many, this case has 

come to represent some of the flaws and pitfalls for immigrants 

and for employers in the H-2B temporary guest worker program. 

As this Committee considers this new rule, and as Congress debates changes to our immigration system, we must ensure American businesses have the labor they need while making certain that 

workers are protected as well. We also need to make the American 

workforce our number one priority, and we should not undercut 

these American workers. It is a reality that the economic growth 

for small businesses depends on an immigrant workforce to fill the 

labor demands caused by shortages in various U.S. sectors. 

American small business owners are the largest employers in the 

nation and are impacted greatly by immigration reform. I believe 

we should address these issues in a comprehensive reform that will 

ensure small businesses’ access to the workforce while at the same 

time meeting the labor needs and maintaining functional laws that 

will modernize America’s immigration system. 

This hearing will present both sides of this critical issue so we 

can properly understand the advantages and challenges of the HSBREP-219 with DISTILLER

4 

2B visa program as both houses of Congress debate immigration reform. 

With that, I look forward to hearing your testimonies. Thank 

you, and I yield back my time, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman RICE. Thank you, sir. If additional members have 

opening statements prepared, I ask they be submitted for the 

record. 

I would also like to take a minute to explain the timing lights 

to you all. You each have five minutes to deliver your testimony. 

The lights in front of you will start out green. When you have a 

minute remaining it will turn yellow, and when your time is up it 

will turn red. If you are close to the end, obviously, we will be a 

little lenient on the time. Nobody is going to throw a hook out 

there. 

Our first witness is my friend, Brad Dean. Brad is the president 

and CEO of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce in South 

Carolina. The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce has more 

than 2,700 members and serves the business community throughout the Grand Strand from Little River to Pawleys Island. Before 

joining the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Dean 

opened and ran the Hard Rock Cafe ́ in Myrtle Beach. Currently, 

he serves on the board of directors of the South Carolina Tourism 

Alliance. I will also tell you Mr. Dean is an innovator in tourism. 

He has done wonderful things with our area and I am very proud 

to have him in our area. 

Welcome, Mr. Dean. You have five minutes to present your testimony. 

STATEMENTS OF BRAD DEAN, PRESIDENT & CEO, MYRTLE 

BEACH AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE; SARAH M. DIMENT, 

OWNER, THE BEACHMERE INN; WILLIAM SPRIGGS, CHIEF 

ECONOMIST, AFL-CIO; JANE NICHOLS BISHOP, PRESIDENT, 

PEAK SEASON WORKFORCE. 

STATEMENT OF BRAD DEAN 

Mr. DEAN. Well, thank you, Chairman Rice, Ranking Member 

Payne, and other members of this Committee. As Congressman 

Rice mentioned, I am Brad Dean from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The organization that I represent serves in businesses that 

employ over 50,000 American workers in South Carolina, and I appreciate your invitation to testify today on a matter that is important to businesses throughout America, and particularly Myrtle 

Beach, South Carolina, and that is the seasonal employment needs 

of small businesses in our tourism industry. 

Myrtle Beach is a small town. We only have about 30,000 residents, but this year we expect to welcome more than 15 million 

visitors to our community. As you might imagine, tourism is a huge 

economic generator for our community. A $7 billion annual economic impact supports over 74,000 jobs in our small community, 

and as you might expect, it also pays for a lot of important public 

services like police, firefighting, and education, and infrastructure. 

One challenging aspect of our tourism industry is the seasonality. 

We will conduct more than 60 percent of our business in the 

months of June, July, and August, and while we welcome that inSBREP-219 with DISTILLER

5 

flux into our community in the summer months, that certainly presents some unique challenges for our community. And one of those 

challenges is the handling of employment for small businesses during the peak season. 

To attract employees, local businesses take a number of steps 

each year. They advertise in newspapers, online websites. They 

host job fairs and participate in their own independent hiring 

events. They also hire students who re-enter the workforce for the 

summer; retirees who re-enter the workforce, albeit temporarily; 

and they also employ workers from outside our county and actually 

help to pay for transportation to bring those workers to and from 

the job. 

Yet despite our best efforts, seasonal jobs remain unfilled each 

and every year. We have found ourselves needing temporary seasonal workers in both good and bad economic times. The economic 

reality for us is very simple. During our peak tourism season, when 

business doubles or triples and several thousand jobs are added to 

our community, we do not have enough American workers to fill 

our temporary employment needs. The H-2B visa program, which 

supplies approved temporary workers at a fair wage, is essential to 

our economic success. The businesses that I represent pay competitive wages and successfully hire thousands of hard-working Americans for both full-time and part-time jobs. They pay seasonal workers a market-based wage that is documented and approved by the 

federal government, and though the H-2B program is often complex 

and costly for small businesses, it is a necessary tool for our local 

businesses. It creates a win-win scenario for our business community. Employers find reliable, trained temporary workers to fill 

temporary jobs which would otherwise go unfilled; temporary workers voluntarily come here to earn a fair wage, pay taxes, and learn 

our language and our customs; American workers enjoy full-time 

pay and benefits in businesses that succeed in part by the hiring 

of H-2B visa workers; and our economy benefits by optimal business activity and the fair collection of all taxes owed. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. If temporary jobs go unfilled, everyone loses. 

While our businesses willingly use the current H-2B visa program out of necessity, the process for hiring an H-2B visa worker 

could be improved upon. We would encourage Congress to consider 

opportunities to improve the efficiency of this program, streamlining some of the onerous requirements and making it less burdensome for small- and medium-sized businesses. And we should 

seek to prevent the processing delay experienced by small businesses using this program. This year, the uncertainty in agency action and the regulation of the program presented a barrier for a lot 

of businesses that we are experiencing right now at the peak of our 

summer season. Seasonal hiring was deterred for several weeks, 

and that has made a lengthy, costly process even longer and more 

costly. 

Critics of the program might try to confuse the issue and make 

this part of the immigration debate or suggest that this is simply 

about displacing American workers, but that is not true. The real 

issue here is about jobs and enabling American small businesses to 

do what they do best—create jobs and put American workers back 

SBREP-219 with DISTILLER

6 

to work. Let me assure you that a guest worker program is not a 

luxury; rather, it is a business necessity. And without the H-2B 

program, a seasonal tourism destination, like Myrtle Beach, South 

Carolina, will struggle. But with it, we enjoy a level playing field 

and our businesses are given a fair chance to succeed. 

In closing, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, and members of this 

Committee, I humbly offer you a gentle reminder that the laws you 

create can provide small businesses greater confidence and clarity, 

a willingness to grow and invest and the opportunity to succeed. 

Likewise, you can create laws that stifle growth and limit job creation. I encourage you to bear in mind the needs of small businesses, the single largest creator of jobs in America today. Recognize that for communities dependent upon a seasonal tourism industry, temporary guest workers are a business necessity, and the 

H-2B visa program is one very small but important part of a successful economy and should be given fair consideration. 

On behalf of the nearly 3,000 businesses I represent, I encourage 

you to make this a priority, and I thank you for your time. 

Chairman RICE. Thank you, Mr. Dean. 

Our second witness is Sarah Diment, owner of The Beachmere 

Inn in Ogunquit, Maine. She is a third generation innkeeper. For 

76 years, members of Ms. Diment’s family have owned and operated The Beachmere Inn, which is located 87 miles north of Boston 

on the coast of Maine. Ms. Diment was honored recently with a 

Real Hero award from the American Red Cross of Maine, Southern 

Maine chapter for assistance she provided to the families affected 

by Hurricane Sandy. 

Welcome. You have five minutes to present your testimony. 

STATEMENT OF SARAH DIMENT 

Ms. DIMENT. Thank you for having me, Chairman Rice, and 

ranking members of the Committee. 

As you have heard, I am a third generation hotel owner from 

Ogunquit, Maine—it is not easy to say—and I do appreciate you inviting me here to speak to you about seasonal employment needs. 

We operate a year-round, 73-room property in Ogunquit. We 

have been using the H-2B program on and off for over 10 years as 

we have had a very difficult time hiring seasonal workers to support our housekeeping needs during the peak summer and fall seasons. This year, we had to drop out of processing due to the application that was stuck in limbo when the DOL stopped processing 

earlier this year. We could not wait with uncertainty to find out if 

we would get our approvals. 

Ogunquit is located only 87 miles north of Boston and six hours 

from New York City. Yesterday, I left my office at 10:30 and I was 

in downtown D.C. by 3:00. We are a very popular community resort. We operate at almost 100 percent occupancy for July, August, 

and September, dropping down to a nice 85 percent occupancy in 

October. That is a lot of guests, rooms, meals, and amenities that 

we provide daily. 

Tourism is the primary industry in our region and is the number 

one industry in Ogunquit. We have 1,100 residents in Ogunquit. 

We have 44 restaurants and over 2,500 hotel rooms. I clearly do 

not pull from our local community in order to assist us for hiring. 

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7 

There are many neighboring towns to compete with for employees—Kennebunk, York, Wells, Biddeford all pull from one area that 

has the most employees to offer for hiring, and that is Sanford, 

Maine, a community of approximately 22,000 residents. That is a 

big town for us. 

From Portland, Maine, to the New Hampshire border, there are 

18,000 hotel rooms that need to be cleaned on a daily basis during 

the summer and the fall season. Starting level housekeeping wages 

earn anywhere from $9 to $10 to start. I have never paid minimum 

wage since I have joined the business in 1995. We currently have 

14 housekeepers, but we need 17 to run our operation smoothly. As 

we employ mostly working mothers, we make accommodations for 

part-time and flexible hours to keep them employed year-round. We 

are a year-round business. We offer benefits for our employees, retirement plans, vacation pay, sick time, and reviews to keep 

them—to encourage growth and leadership within the departments. 

H-2B workers are essential to our operation, and they are seen 

by our employees as a critical backup they need during the summer 

and fall months. I have tried to recruit in many ways for seasonal 

housekeeping. I do the normal advertising through the Internet, 

newspapers, and so forth, but I have also tried to reach out to college students. Unfortunately, the closest educational facility is 22 

miles but yet takes 40 minutes to commute from. College students 

are focused on resume-building starting in freshman year. They are 

primarily taking internships during the day and working in a job 

at night. Housekeeping needs to be done during the day. 

Last weekend, I tried to recruit high school graduates when I attended my cousin’s graduation in Bangor, Maine, and not one student was interested in coming down to work for the summer as a 

housekeeper. We have also tried to recruit in Northern Maine, 

where I placed ads up in the county, which brought in a few interested applicants, but unfortunately, because it is a seasonal job and 

the high cost of housing in a very resort community, I was not able 

to bring them down for the short term that they would be here. 

The complications of bringing their family or leaving them behind 

quickly made these jobs undesirable. 

H-2B workers are paid the same rate as those we hire from the 

American workforce. They are in some instances even paid more as 

they have been returning for season after season. We built new 

housing for them in 2008, some with ocean views, all within a 100- 

foot walk of our property. They are eligible for retirement benefits, 

workers’ comp insurance, bonuses, as well as weekly shopping trips 

to be able to purchase for their families at home. 

Hiring H-2B workers is not easy or inexpensive. We pay up to 

$3,100 in agency fees, as well as $1,700 in USCIS fees related to 

processing of that paperwork. All transportation is paid by us, to 

and from their home country. Prevailing wage that was determined 

for us earlier this year before we dropped out was $9.39 an hour. 

That was in February. It was then revised to $10.54 an hour in 

May. That is an increase of $1.15 an hour. I am well into my season at that point. I have already published my rates and I have already hired and have committed to hotel rooms at rates. I am not 

able to change my revenues based on change in cost for employees. 

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The impact of not having H-2B workers for our property this season is already being felt. We have had to move to a six-day workweek, we are pulling employees from various departments, and we 

are not able to have full coverage in all of the areas. That means 

that my GM, as well as myself, are cleaning rooms. Not having seasonal coverage puts my entire team at a pace that is not conducive 

to lasting the season. Housekeeping is not an easy, sedentary job. 

H-2B workers come with the knowledge that they are here for a 

short time to help us cover a seasonal job. 

Thank you for your time. I am happy to answer any questions. 

Chairman RICE. Thank you, Ms. Diment. 

I will now yield to Congressman Payne to introduce the next witness. 

Mr. PAYNE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The next witness, William Spriggs, serves as the chief economist 

to the AFL-CIO and is a professor and former chair of the Department of Economics at Howard University. Bill assumed these roles 

in August of 2012, after leaving the Executive Branch of the U.S. 

Government. Before August, Bill was appointed by President 

Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2009, to serve 

as assistant secretary of the Office of Policy at the United States 

Department of Labor, taking a leave of absence from Howard University to do so. At the time of his appointment, he also served as 

chairman of the Health Care Trust for UAW retirees of the Ford 

Motor Company and as chairman of the UAW retirees of the Dana 

Corporation Health and Welfare Trust and on the Joint National 

Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Public Administration Committees on the fiscal future of the United States, and also 

as a senior fellow of Community Service Society of New York. Mr. 

Spriggs’ previous work experiences include roles leading economic 

policy, development, and research as a senior fellow and economist 

at the Economic Policy Institute; as senior vice president for the 

National Urban League, an over a 100 year old leading civil rights 

NGO in the U.S.; as a senior advisor for the Office of Government 

Contracting and Minority Business Development for the U.S. Small 

Business Administration; as a senior advisor and economist for the 

Economics and Statistics Administration for the U.S. Department 

of Commerce; and as an economic—wow, you have been busy—and 

also as an economist for the democratic staff of the Joint Economic 

Committee on Congress; and as a staff director for the Independent 

Federal National Commission for Employment Policy. While working on his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin, 

Bill began his labor career as co-president of the American Federation of Teachers Local 3220 in Madison, Wisconsin. He is a member 

of the National Academy of Social Insurance and the National 

Academy of Public Administration. 

Mr. Spriggs. 

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM SPRIGGS 

Mr. SPRIGGS. Thank you. And thank you very much, Chair, for 

inviting me and giving me this opportunity to testify before your 

Committee. On behalf of Richard Trumka and the whole AFL-CIO 

family, we want to make sure on the record that we share our condolences with Congresswoman Chu in the loss of her mother. And 

SBREP-219 with DISTILLER

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we are very sorry that she could not be here and we hope that you 

will be able to convey to her our concerns at this time. 

I want to thank the ranking member and Mr. Keating, Mr. 

Schneider, Mr. Barber for joining us as well. 

Today we stand over five years into the wrath of the Great Recession. The number of payroll positions in American remains over 

2.4 million less than in January 2008. At the rate of job creation 

last month, it would take more than 13 months to get back to the 

pre-recession level of employment, meaning a net job growth of 

zero jobs over almost a six and a half year period. In the interim, 

America’s labor force has grown over one and a half million and 

will grow larger over the next year. The result is a backlog of 

Americans looking for jobs, over 11.7 million Americans. 

The brunt of the difficulty in the labor market has fallen on 

young workers, who are suffering from the lowest levels of employment on record in American history. Fewer than 38 percent of 18- 

and 19-year-old Americans have a job. That is the lowest ever in 

American history. Among those 20 to 24, the share of jobs is below 

61 percent, well below the full employment levels when the figures 

should be 13 percentage points higher. And for those with jobs, 

wages have been essentially flat, rising only three percent over this 

period when adjusted for inflation. 

So to put it bluntly, we are still in the midst of an American jobs 

crisis, especially for entry level jobs for young Americans. It has 

never been more crucial for America’s policymakers and Congress 

and the administration to pull together to ensure job opportunities 

for the almost 12 million Americans looking for work and to protect 

the wages of those at work, many of whom are working part-time 

but would like to work full-time. 

An important policy would be for Congress to join with the administration to ensure that job opportunities being created are fully 

available to millions of Americans looking for work while protecting 

the wages of those people. Straddled with court cases and appropriation blocks from Congress, the administration has delayed several times the implementation of new rules over the use of temporary, non-immigrant workers in entry level jobs like young 

Americans desperately need. 

Over the course of the recovery, Congress has worked with the 

administration to pass various tax cuts aimed at helping small 

business in particular add workers, ranging from the Small Business Jobs Act, to the HIRE Act. These tax cuts have given small 

business extra incentives to add workers to their payrolls, but 

these efforts will be undermined if the jobs are given to non-immigrant temporary workers or if workers are brought in with wages 

to undercut the competitiveness of small businesses struggling to 

take advantage of the tax cuts and boost their local economy. 

The loser when wages are set low by a few firms are not just 

Americans denied job opportunities but the hardworking businesses and their employees fighting to restore an economy that 

works for everyone. The economic analysis done by the Department 

of Labor to study its interim final rule found that there are just 

on average 79,000 H-2B positions that are open in the United 

States that are being applied for. Unfortunately, the regulations for 

the program have been caught on struggles that have hurt busiSBREP-219 with DISTILLER

10 

nesses that may have need of the program and delayed policymakers from coalescing around a sound set of policies that protect 

the Americans looking for jobs and need access to them. 

The courts have not accepted the premise that the Department 

of Labor could adopt multiple wage levels for the jobs typical of the 

H-2B program. The findings of the court appeared consistent with 

BLS characterization of these jobs as having relatively lower skills 

compared to many jobs and therefore, a wage structure that does 

not reflect skill differences. The source of the Department’s wage 

rule is the Occupational Employment Statistics administration 

studies is a huge database that covers over 1.2 million different 

U.S. establishments and captures 62 percent of employment. Given 

the size of the samples and the technical issues involved in designing a proper probability-based sample similar to the BLS, the need 

for accurate, reliable, and replicable results in policymaking mean 

that the costs are really prohibitive for employers to do such studies. If employers pay below the average wage for an occupation, 

they really lower the wages for the area, and so I think the Department has set the wage at the correct level. 

More could be done to protect the wages of American workers. 

We need to think about those businesses that have entered into collective bargaining agreements with their workers. We have to 

think about those employers who are federal contractors and are 

trying to live up to rules under the Davis-Bacon Act and Service 

Contract Act wage rules. Unfortunately, many H-2B workers gain 

access to the program through foreign labor recruiters who illegally 

charge the worker fees. Many H-2B workers then arrive in America 

already in debt. The result is that much of those foreign workers 

earn has to be repatriated to pay for foreign labor agents and recruiters. This is why it is important to coalesce around a rule that 

can work for everyone and protect us from that kind of abuse. 

I just want to conclude by pointing out that yes, the tourism industry is an important industry in the United States. That means 

that we should be sure that our policies are giving Americans the 

best opportunity to acquire the jobs, experience, and skills to excel 

in industries we want to promote through public policy. To maximize the potential for gathering the full value added or the industry, it is essential that we turn to the millions of unemployed 

Americans for these jobs. Yes, the demand for these jobs is seasonal, but to young people looking for entry-level positions, these 

are good steps. And to many companies hiring Americans in the 

tourism industry, it is very important to keep them protected from 

low-wage competition that undercuts their efforts to protect and 

promote middle-class American values. 

Thank you. 

Chairman RICE. Thank you, sir. 

At this time I would like to yield to Congressman Keating to introduce the next witness. 

Mr. KEATING. Well, thank you, Chairman Rice and Representative Payne. I also want to thank Chairman Graves and Ranking 

Member Vela ́zquez and also keep Ranking Member Chu in our 

thoughts today. 

I have the privilege of introducing one of our esteemed witnesses, 

Jane Bishop, who is a constituent of mine. Jane is the founder and 

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president of Peak Season Workforce. Peak Season Workforce is a 

family-owned small business based in Mashpee, Massachusetts on 

Cape Cod and was created to fill a demonstrated local need in understanding the complexities of government filings to successfully 

obtain H-2B work visas. Over the years, Peak Season Workforce 

has grown from assisting transportation and hospitality businesses 

on the Cape and islands of Martha’s Vineyard in Nantucket to representing scores of businesses in New England and across the nation to fill seasonal jobs with international workers when American 

workers were not available. Known affectionately as Mama Visa, 

Jane brings in exceptional knowledge of federal and state visa 

rules and decades of experience previously working in D.C. as the 

president of an international student travel agency. She was an authorized federal visa signer and a successful innkeeper on Cape 

Cod. So I welcome her and welcome the opportunity to introduce 

her. And I would take note that I am in the midst of taking testimony in the Ethics Committee and I might be leaving. It has nothing to do with anyone’s testimony. 

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I yield back. 

STATEMENT OF JANE NICHOLS BISHOP 

Ms. BISHOP. Good afternoon, Chairman Rice and Congressman 

Payne. Thank you for holding this important hearing and for the 

opportunity to present testimony. I also want to thank my congressman, Bill Keating, of Massachusetts, for his presence here 

today and for his untiring support of the small businesses that employ H-2B international workers. 

My name is Jane Nichols Bishop. I am the president of Peak 

Season Workforce of Mashpee, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. For 

more than a decade, we have successfully helped seasonal tourismbased businesses navigate the intricate government filing process 

to successfully obtain H-2B work visas. We do not charge international workers any fees. Our fees are paid by employers exclusively. Incidentally, we are a small, family-run business with just 

three employees, including myself. I represent more than 100 employers seeking H-2B work visas to supplement their American 

workforces during peak visitor seasons. 

I represent, for example, hotels, motels, inns, bed and breakfast 

establishments, restaurants, clam shacks, pizza shops, public 

transportation operator, coffee shops, and golf courses. All of them 

experience a significant increase in business during the season. 

These businesses depend on workers with H-2B visas to fill essential jobs. My client employers that use H-2B international workers 

are not able to find enough U.S. workers to fulfill their staffing 

needs. They use workers from abroad to supplement, not replace, 

Americans in their workforce. Each of my employers hires American workers but does not have enough of them during their busy 

season. 

This year, small businesses encountered a particularly vexing 

problem that threw a last-minute monkey wrench into the application process and caused costly delays of many visa applications. On 

March 21, a federal judicial ruling ordered the Labor Department 

to stop issuing new prevailing wages because of an alleged flawed 

methodology that has been used successfully since 2008. The Labor 

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and Homeland Security Departments responded by freezing all 

pending applications for up to 45 days. This stopped the H-2B application process in its tracks and created a major approval backup 

at U.S. embassies worldwide. Businesses could not get their H-2B 

staff approved and were left without help at the start of the season. 

Today, 25 to 30 of my small business clients still wait for final approval while the season is in full swing. 

Because we are experiencing delays now, some small tourismbased businesses are taking extreme measures to survive. These 

include turning business away because of staff shortages. 

Here is an example. Along the New England coast there is a 

small inn with a restaurant. Here, the middle of June, the owner 

has been unable to offer dinner because her H-2B cooks are stuck 

in the approval process. She is losing reservations. In fact, there 

was a planned wedding reception that could not go on because of 

inadequate staff. The owner has resorted to cleaning guestrooms 

herself while her H-2B housekeepers are waiting in their home 

countries for approval. 

When some of this year’s approvals resumed at the Labor Department, business were told flat out to pay their H-2B workers 

much higher wages in order to continue with the program. For 

most of our businesses, the new mandated wages went up 10 to 34 

percent per hour. In dollar amounts, we saw an increase of $3 to 

$8 per hour per employee, including American workers who do the 

same jobs. 

Businesses cannot survive with this type of sudden labor cost increase. All of this from a Labor Department that told the ruling 

judge that subsequent wages would increase ‘‘at most, $2.12 per 

hour.’’ Over the past two years, Congress has repeatedly blocked 

the Labor Department from implementing prevailing wage increases that burden struggling small businesses. We strongly encourage Congress to act again. Please encourage the Departments 

of Labor and Homeland Security to rescind the interim final rule 

and replace it with a more reasonable approach to setting wages 

as was done under 2008 regulations. One approach might be the 

H-2B wage language that is included in S.t4, the immigration bill 

currently being debated in the Senate. It is also important that the 

Departments implement a new and more reasonable approach to 

setting wages without shutting down the H-2B program and causing further processing delays on already struggling small businesses. 

As you know, small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy. Many in popular tourism destinations are dependent on international workers with H-2B visas to have successful seasons. They 

cannot thrive without adequate staff and with the uncertainty of 

when they will become available. Businesses cannot show a successful bottom-line if they are hobbled by bureaucratic delays and 

decision-making that imposes unreasonable and noncompetitive 

wage rates. 

Thank you for your time. I will be pleased to answer any questions that you have. 

Chairman RICE. Thank you, Ms. Bishop. 

Now comes the part where we put you on the frying pan. 

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I have a few questions. And Mr. Spriggs, I want to start with 

you. I am a little confused about your testimony. Are you saying 

that the H-2B program is bad law and should be eliminated? Or 

do you think it provides a valid piece of the employment picture for 

small businesses in these areas that have low populations and big 

tourist destinations? 

Mr. SPRIGGS. Chairman, thank you. And thank you for the opportunity to clarify my testimony since I rushed through it so much 

and I appreciate you doing that. 

Let me be clear. The big problem is, as was mentioned, an uncertainty around regulation. But the regulation has to be the correct 

regulation. And I believe the correct regulation includes paying 

wages that are the average wage for the occupation for which the 

worker would come in. Otherwise, the wages are lowering the average lower wage in the area. It is just the arithmetic of it. 

Chairman RICE. Let me clarify. 

Mr. SPRIGGS. Yes. 

Chairman RICE. So you are saying that the H-2B is a valid program. It is good law. You are questioning about the regulations; 

correct? 

Mr. SPRIGGS. That is correct. And part of the regulations that 

are not being implemented would have further improved two key 

elements. One, the recruitment of American workers; the other is 

the oversight of foreign labor recruiters. Many employers here in 

the U.S. do not see those foreign labor recruiters. They are invisible to them. They do not know what those recruiters are doing, 

and we need the ability to have oversight over the use of them. So 

I am not saying that the law is bad, but the proper regulation 

needs to be in place. The sooner Congress and the administration 

can coalesce around rules that protect the wages of American workers, ensure real recruitment of American workers, and end the 

abuse of foreign labor recruiters, the sooner I think we have a program that can help everyone. 

Chairman RICE. We thought we were coalesced until the spring 

of this year and somehow we got uncoalesced. I guess the administration made the decision we were not coalesced. Thank you, sir. 

Mr. Dean, Ms. Diment, let me ask you, what is the problem? 

Why do we not just hire American workers? Why do we need this 

program? 

Mr. DEAN. Well, Mr. Chairman, as you point out, we want to 

hire American workers. The businesses I represent want to hire 

full-time, permanent American workers. We would like to see those 

numbers grow, and I suspect everyone here today would agree with 

that. The simple fact of the matter is this—that when you see a 

seasonal tourism destination, like your community, Myrtle Beach, 

where millions of visitors come in a short period of time, we just 

simply do not have the labor and it takes a different business 

model. 

Let me put it in perspective that perhaps Congress can relate to. 

Just imagine if three out of every five of your committee hearings, 

three out of every five of your office visits, and three out of every 

five of your pieces of legislation you pass had to get passed or occur 

in the months of June, July, and August. I dare say that you would 

staff and operate your offices and your committees differently, and 

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that is what we face. The simple fact of the matter is we do not 

have the number of American workers to fill those jobs during the 

peak season, and we simply have to utilize the H-2B visa program. 

It is a small, but very important part of our seasonal tourism economy. 

Chairman RICE. Ms. Diment. 

Ms. DIMENT. I would say in Maine the seasonality issue and 

the fact that we are so rural just does not allow us to have enough 

workers to be able to fill the jobs in the season. And it is not that 

we do not want to hire American workers and we have 75 to 85 

percent of our workforce is American workers. We are looking to 

shore them up during the busiest time of the year when we have 

50,000 people in our town on a daily basis. Having the resources 

to pull from is the problem in many rural communities around the 

country who are operating in these great destinations that people 

come to because they are out of the way, yet these rural destinations do not have the workforce available to support the demands 

of the traveling public. 

Chairman RICE. Thank you, Ms. Diment. 

Ms. Bishop, do these workers get paid less than American workers would in the same job in the same circumstance? 

Ms. BISHOP. No. In fact, they are paid more. There is something 

called prevailing wage. Prevailing wage is a wage that is much 

more than minimum wage and in fact, businesses that use it are 

at a disadvantage, competitive disadvantage, because they do have 

to pay so much more than someone who does not participate in an 

H-2B program. The problem now is that the new prevailing wages 

are going up while the season is already in swing. It has already 

started. 

Chairman RICE. Who determines the prevailing wages, the innkeeper? 

Ms. BISHOP. The Department of Labor if you participate in the 

H-2B program. 

Chairman RICE. So the Department of Labor tells you what you 

have to pay? 

Ms. BISHOP. That is correct. It tells the employers that the 

wage is—well, in the case of one client it went from $15 an hour— 

no, I am sorry, excuse me—$13 an hour to $21 an hour. That is 

21 workers this client now has to pay $21 an hour. His fees are 

not set for that wage. 

Chairman RICE. And let me clarify one other thing. If somebody 

participates in this and they hire these foreign workers at this 

wage, do the American workers that work there get paid less? 

Ms. BISHOP. No. If an American is doing the same job, they also 

must be paid prevailing wage. So if you were paying a wage of— 

so I can use round figures—$10 an hour to Americans, prevailing 

wage came in at $11 an hour, even the Americans, if they are doing 

the same job, now get $11 an hour. 

Chairman RICE. So just so I can be crystal clear about this, if 

somebody elects to participate in the H-2B program, then the Department of Labor sets the wage rate they have to pay, then everybody—everybody—American, foreign, whether they come through 

this program or not, get paid that prevailing wage. Is that correct? 

Ms. BISHOP. That is correct. 

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Chairman RICE. Thank you. 

Mr. Dean, in your experience, why don’t American workers apply 

for the seasonal jobs you are seeking to fill? Could you elaborate 

on the responses that your members get from American workers to 

their recruiting efforts? 

Mr. DEAN. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is perhaps one 

of the most common questions about this program—why is it when 

we have an unemployment rate in our community that will range 

anywhere between 8 and 12 percent this year do these jobs go unfilled? I suspect that part of the reason is that the workers that are 

unemployed are working for full-time, permanent jobs. Now, that 

is the main source of jobs in our community, but most of those unemployed are not looking for a job that lasts 60 to 90 days. And 

it may be that some of them have found that they can subsist on 

other government programs like unemployment insurance for that 

time as opposed to entering the workforce. 

I cannot speak for other communities, but what I can tell you, 

in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, we have thousands of college students who enter the summer workforce. We have retirees who reenter the workforce. We bring employees from outside the county in 

and even still that is not enough. So clearly, there is a gap between 

the number of workers needed and the number that we are able 

to hire. And many of those who are unemployed are just simply 

choosing not to participate in a competition for these jobs. Most of 

the businesses would prefer to hire a local employee but that has 

never been possible in good and bad economic times, and therefore, 

we need the seasonal tourism employees to help our tourism businesses succeed during the peak season. 

Chairman RICE. Thank you, Mr. Dean. 

At this time I am going to yield to Mr. Payne for his questions. 

Mr. PAYNE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

You know, in light of the topic that was just being discussed, Mr. 

Spriggs, it has been suggested that the impact of the H-2B program on our economy has been to depress wages for both domestic 

and foreign workers. Can you explain in detail how the recent Department of Labor regulations addresses the wage issue and explain how they can impact small businesses? 

Mr. SPRIGGS. Yes, thank you. 

So the wage is set at the average wage for that particular occupation in that particular metropolitan area. Or if it is rural, then 

that particular nonmetropolitan area. The Occupational Employment Statistics survey that is used is big enough to pinpoint very 

specific occupations. So in the cases of food preparation workers, 

that is one category. A bus boy is another job category. A short 

order cook is a different category. So it is able to fine tune to very 

precise occupations and on a basis of a very large survey of employers covering over 1.2 million American establishments, 62 percent 

of American employment, we are able to accurately tell you what 

is the average wage of people in that occupation in that specific 

substate area. So that is what is the prevailing wage. If you offer 

wage below that, you are lowering the average wage in that occupation in that very specific region. 

Now, some areas use H-2B workers but there are many tourist 

areas that do not. Atlantic City, near you, does not have any HSBREP-219 with DISTILLER

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2B applications on record for fiscal year 2012. We know Nevada, 

which is in a remote area as well, zero. Tunica, Mississippi, zero. 

So this is not something that is used universally in the tourism industry or in tourism locations. My area where I went to high 

school, Virginia Beach, almost all of those H-2B visa applications 

are for landscaping. There is only one for food prep workers. 

So this is not a universal model for how resort areas work. But 

we do need to have rules that we agree on, and I think the more 

sound policy—becuase these occupations are very finely tuned—is 

to have just the average wage. What has happened is back in 2008, 

the courts ruled that using a four-tier wage level and arguing that 

some workers could be brought in under the guise that there is 

some lower tier within being a bus boy did not make economic 

sense. The Department of Labor had not made a case for the fourtier wage level, and in reviewing the four-tier wage level, the Department rejected the idea that there were four different wage levels for these very narrow bands of occupations and that the average wage made the most sense. 

Mr. PAYNE. Okay. Now, Ms. Diment, critics of the H-2B program argue that American workers could fill these positions but we 

are hearing that might not be the case. You know, how rigorous are 

your recruitment activities around that, and do you feel that they 

go beyond existing recruitment requirements? How vigorous do you 

attempt to recruit American workers? 

Ms. DIMENT. Weekly to daily. Honestly, it will depend on what 

is happening at the hotel at the time. We are obviously pulling people to work in housekeeping right now, so there are times when my 

general manager cannot put out her advertising for housekeepers 

because she is working in housekeeping. 

We are recruiting all of the time. We are talking to our employees every day about who they know, who could they recommend, 

who could come in. However, I do have to screen people. I am asking housekeeping to clean rooms with personal belongings and not 

everyone is appropriate for the job. People who come in may decide 

that a seasonal job is not what they are looking for, and the purpose of H-2B for us is to support our year-round workforce. So I 

am not offering year-round jobs right now. I am looking to fill and 

support the people who are already there, the American workforce 

that is already working for us. Barring dragging people from Bangor, Maine, last weekend, I have done everything I can think of at 

the moment. 

Mr. PAYNE. So basically, you use it just to supplement during 

your peak time of business and your primary workforce is American? 

Ms. DIMENT. Seventy-five to 85 percent. Without the H-2B right 

now it is 100 percent. But I am also working short. I see this as 

a supplement. I see this as a time when we are competing with 

every other hotel, restaurant, retailer, amusement park for summer business on the coast of Maine. Eighteen thousand hotel rooms 

are a lot of rooms to clean every day in the summertime. We just 

do not have the population and the availability of Americans during the height of the season. 

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Mr. PAYNE. Okay. And can you further explain how the move 

from the self-attestation to a certification-based model in the DOL 

rules could harm your ability to obtain these visas? 

Ms. DIMENT. So you are speaking of prevailing wage? 

Mr. PAYNE. Yes. 

Ms. DIMENT. We set our rates in advance in the coastal communities. Most of our people come to us year after year. They reserve 

reservations a year in advance. And we base our rates based on our 

forecast and our budget as most small businesses do. So when the 

prevailing wage comes in not until the spring, I have already set 

my rates in the December beforehand. So I am already working in 

a gray area as to what I am going to be paying any workers who 

are coming in to supplement our regular workforce. There is already a level of ambiguity there. When they came in this year, the 

initial prevailing wage came in at a range that is appropriate for 

my area and what we pay for housekeeping. It was then modified 

to be about $1.15 more. That is an expense to my biggest department that has to be paid to not only H-2B employees but to our 

American workers, and it then ripples out into every other department who says why are you paying housekeeping more than you 

are paying a person in the food service department or an entry 

level front desk employee or a person who we hire in the maintenance department to clean up trash and clean off the lawn chairs? 

So it is a bigger picture overall for us. It affects every person who 

works at the hotel. It also sets me up as having unfair competition 

for the hotel next door who might be 50 rooms but has chosen not 

to utilize the H-2B program for whatever reason. Their costs are 

much lower than ours, yet they probably have set their rates at the 

same time that we have set ours. 

Mr. PAYNE. Okay. So Mr. Spriggs, once again, I understand that 

the critics of the H-2B visa program believe that it has a negative 

effect on American workers. They suggest that employers prefer 

temporary workers to keep costs low. While I believe cost is a factor, could it also be that more Americans are advancing their education so they do not seek temporary work? 

Mr. SPRIGGS. In the current labor market, Americans are very 

desperate, and so I do not think that is the issue. And as I mentioned before, this is not a model everywhere. Tunica, Mississippi, 

is a very remote area but they do not use the H-2B program in 

Tunica, Mississippi. So I think it is particular to certain areas. And 

I would say the program, while we have model employers here and 

the people here are honest, hardworking businesses, we know there 

are many violations of the program where the program has been 

abused. And the regulations need to reflect those who misuse the 

program and hurt those who are trying legitimately to run their 

businesses. Without the implementation and the clarity for all employers of clear set rules so we do not have violations that no one 

on this panel would agree with, no one on this panel would agree 

that foreign labor recruiters should be extorting the workers who 

are working for them, but you need regulations in order to weed 

out those violations of those foreign labor recruiters. You need regulations to avoid those who are abusing the program. And so we 

need Congress to coalesce with the administration on these meaningful corrections to a program that we have on record, these many 

SBREP-219 with DISTILLER

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violations that you mentioned in your opening statement. Those 

are facts. They have happened. And we need regulations to avoid 

those. 

Mr. PAYNE. Absolutely. I think that is very important. As Mr. 

Spriggs stated, for Ms. Diment and Ms. Bishop, and Mr. Dean, we 

want to try to weed out the people that are not playing by the rules 

that you are playing, and that is the root of a great deal of my concern. You are doing everything you need to do but there are people 

that are in your industry and your competition that are cutting corners. And I think that is where Congress and the administration 

come in and try to level that playing field. 

And Mr. Dean, the cap for non-agricultural foreign workers is 

only 66,000 people. The program has to contend with a wide range 

of industries and a growing need for labor. Certainly, specialty and 

smaller firms may not have the same access as larger companies. 

How do you see the tourism industry growing in terms of the workforce and demand or lack thereof? 

And just on a personal note, I was in Myrtle Beach for the first 

time, my first time in South Carolina, several months ago for the 

Congressional Black Caucus Institute met there and got to hear 

your presentation. So I know you are recruiting, and I know your 

tourism business, you are a great advocate. But to my question. 

Mr. DEAN. Certainly. Well, we’re delighted you were able to 

make it. As you are probably aware, in the middle of the summer, 

Myrtle Beach is the ad hoc capital of the state of New Jersey with 

as many New Jersey license plates that frequent there. 

The cap is a challenge for us. It would seem to me that it is a 

relatively arbitrary level that could and should be reviewed regularly. In our community, we will not hire the number of temporary 

seasonal workers we need, and that has been true for several 

years, even in the recessionary environment that we face. Now, our 

tourism industry has grown more than most in recent years, but 

the simple fact of the matter is, Congressman, that the cap, while 

we understand it needs to be regulated and there does need to be 

a mathematical analysis of those workers necessary, in the Myrtle 

Beach area the cap tends to be a limit that limits us far too much. 

Now, part of that may be the timing of our season. Part of it may 

be the fact that I represent a lot of independently owned businesses, a lot of third and fourth generation businesses. 

And one other point I would offer, I think you make a great point 

on the regulation, and all of us agree that Congress does have a 

role and responsibility to regulate this, but I would offer this, that 

for those few businesses that are not following the rules, just because rules are being broken does not mean the system is broken, 

and I am glad to hear this Committee express your appreciation for 

those small businesses that are following the rules. We certainly 

should regulate this reasonably but we should not punish those 

who are playing by the rules just simply because others have chosen not to. Thank you. 

Mr. PAYNE. Chairman, I yield back. 

Chairman RICE. Thank you, sir. 

Mr. Mulvaney. 

Mr. MULVANEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to 

everybody for coming out. I always am impressed with people willSBREP-219 with DISTILLER

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ing to take the time out of their schedules to come, especially long 

distances from Maine and South Carolina to do this. It is extraordinarily helpful. What you are doing today is helping to drive the 

debate. It does not look like it is very well attended, but these reports will go out to all members of Congress. These things will be 

printed and reported by the folks who are here, and this will become part of the debate on this program and probably on a larger 

discussion of immigration, which we will talk about in a second. 

I am also glad you are here to talk about the H-2B program because I am not as familiar with it as I am the H-2A program. My 

district is more agriculturally oriented than it is tourist. It sounds 

to me like there is a lot of overlap. I talked to my farmers. They 

had some of the same difficulties about the change in prevailing 

wages in the middle of the season. They talk about the delay. I was 

not aware that the DOL had actually stopped processing. I know 

that in the past several seasons they have delayed processing, and 

whereas the program used to be able to reliably produce legal migrant workers in six weeks, and if you asked for those migrant 

workers seven weeks before the peach crop came in you could usually count on getting your folks in. When they switched that from 

six weeks to six months, we have actually seen businesses in my 

district go out of business because of that delay, whereas some 

folks have the opportunity to sort of stretch and get through if you 

are relying on this program for 90 percent of your workforce during 

your peak times. Again, you have got folks talking about 60 percent 

of your business during the summer. If 90 percent of your business 

comes during a particular harvest season and you cannot get the 

workers, then you are quite literally out of business. So I appreciate the input. 

Just out of curiosity, Ms. Bishop, you probably know a good bit 

about the program. My farmers have to provide food and housing, 

and to a certain extent maybe even clothing to their legal migrant 

workers under the H-2A program. Is it similar in the H-2B or not? 

Ms. BISHOP. The H-2Bs do not have to provide housing, but almost all of my clients do provide subsidized housing because it is 

difficult to find housing when you are coming from a foreign country and you do not know the area. So if you are going to run a business that participates in H-2B, you have usually secured housing. 

It is seasonal housing, and it is also offered to American workers 

in the newspaper ads that they run and in the job bank listings 

so that if Americans are able to take the jobs and they cannot say, 

gee, I do not have housing, well, we have subsidized housing for 

you. 

Mr. MULVANEY. In the Ag program you have to be able to establish that you have taken certain steps in order to attract American workers to the jobs. Do the same rules apply here? 

Ms. BISHOP. They are very similar rules. The job needs to be 

posted on the statewide job bank for at least 10 days. There needs 

to be two very detailed newspaper ads, not the little tiny ad but 

the big expensive ones that tell you everything about the job, and 

that needs to run on two days during that 10-day period, one of 

them being a Sunday. And any American that applies for that job, 

you do everything you can to get that American in to be interviewed. Anything from scheduling the interviews to a time that is 

SBREP-219 with DISTILLER

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appropriate for the worker who wants to come and take your job 

or try to take their job, and chances are that in all that I do and 

all the ads that I have placed, we can run ads and receive absolutely no Americans apply for it. And some of these jobs are $12 

to $15 an hour jobs with flexible schedules and I cannot get a single American to apply for it. 

Mr. MULVANEY. My farmers tell the same story. There is a 

farmer who has actually kept the paperwork on the last 1,000 

workers who showed up to pick peaches, and he can prove to you 

in writing that one of them lasted more than a week. So I think 

what I am hearing here is the same I hear from my farmers, which 

is they would much rather hire American citizen workers. It is 

cheaper, it is easier, it is more effective, but doing this is a last resort. 

Mr. Spriggs, I have got one question for you. When we talk about 

that database, if we have the database for busboys in the Myrtle 

Beach market, we have this average wage. They can look at it and 

there is an average wage. Some folks are making 10, some folks are 

making 12, some folks are making 14, right? IS that how it pretty 

much works? Without those specifics. Okay? Why are you arguing 

for a system that pays migrant workers more than American workers? 

Mr. SPRIGGS. No. 

Mr. MULVANEY. You are. I mean, if there are three workers in 

the market—one makes 8, one makes 10, and one makes 12, and 

those are three American workers, and you are arguing that a migrant worker should make the average—that is $10—you are arguing that that person should make more than the American worker 

making $8. 

Mr. SPRIGGS. Let us remember the previous answer. So you are 

paying the average because that is the average wage for the area, 

and the simple math is that if you bring in people below the average, you are pulling down the average. An American who works at 

that establishment then must be paid the same wage that you are 

offering to the H-2B worker. 

Mr. MULVANEY. And the American who works across the street 

is going to be making less. 

Mr. SPRIGGS. It is a free labor market and Americans are 

aware of the wage distribution, but the idea here is that we do not 

want to pull down the average wage of Americans. And if you bring 

in a set of workers—— 

Mr. MULVANEY. Actually, you would not be pulling down the 

average wage of Americans. If they are making 12, 10, and 8—— 

Mr. SPRIGGS. If you have 12, 10, and 8, and you bring in somebody who makes 8, now the simple math, right, is now you have 

just lowered the average. 

Mr. MULVANEY. No, I have not, because my three Americans—— 

Mr. SPRIGGS. Yes. You have two—— 

Mr. MULVANEY. Excuse me, sir. My three Americans who are 

there are still making 8, 10, and 12. I have not drawn down the 

salaries or wages of any American. I have—yes, I have paid the migrant worker lower than the average, but the three Americans who 

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were in that market beforehand are still making 8, 10, and 12. 

None have seen their wages come down. 

Mr. SPRIGGS. The average wage for the occupation has now 

shifted down. 

Mr. MULVANEY. True. 

Mr. SPRIGGS. If I come—if I come—— 

Mr. MULVANEY. But the average wage received by Americans 

is the same. 

Mr. SPRIGGS. If competition is that we are going to have—lower 

the average wage in the area, then yes, you will affect future 

Americans who go to look for the job. 

Mr. MULVANEY. I am glad to hear the AFL-CIO is arguing for 

wage competition. 

Mr. Dean, very quickly, and to you, Ms. Diment, tell me what 

this means for growth—for your businesses, Mr. Dean, and yours 

in particular, Ms. Diment. Are you able to grow your businesses if 

you cannot find people to work? 

Mr. DEAN. Congressman Mulvaney, as you well know, in tourism, this is a service industry. It is not a manufacturing industry 

where we can turn the assembly line off. We have to serve our customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. If you cannot provide the necessary labor to serve your customers, then you 

simply cannot accommodate them. The best case scenario is that 

you underperform. The worst case scenario is that your business 

actually declines instead of growing. And in our view, the system 

has worked well in the past. It could work better, but the old 

adage, ‘‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’’ applies here. 

Mr. MULVANEY. Ms. Diment, what are the chances of you 

growing your business in the current labor environment? 

Ms. DIMENT. None. I take people out of other departments to 

assist the department that is short-staffed, and thus, I am not able 

to get them to do jobs that would increase the revenue or increase 

the sales and the availability of what they are doing. So if my food 

service people are in stripping rooms out to get them ready for the 

next guests, I am not selling food and beverage. So there is no 

growth. 

Mr. MULVANEY. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sorry 

to go over on my time. 

Chairman RICE. No problem. Thank you, Mr. Mulvaney. 

Next, we have Congressman Barber. 

Mr. BARBER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to all 

of our witnesses for being here today. This is a very important area 

of discussion back home in my community. 

My first question, Mr. Spriggs, is for you. Let me just explain a 

little bit about the community I represent. First of all, I would 

have to say there is nothing I agree with more than we have to find 

jobs for Americans. We are making progress. It is way too slow. 

Way too many people in my community are out of work, and they 

need it, and we need to do everything we can to grow their opportunity. 

The tourism industry in my community in Tucson and southern 

Arizona is a very big deal. It accounts for $2.3 billion in spending 

just in metropolitan Tucson alone, and I am concerned that those 

businesses who have a peak season that starts around October and 

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goes through March—no one really wants to come there in August. 

Believe me. I am dreading going back in August myself. But clearly, we have a very important peak period and we need to fill in. 

So Mr. Spriggs, my question to you is in your opinion what more 

can we do—we in Congress and we in our communities, to help better match up American job seekers with our small tourism businesses? What more can be done? 

Mr. SPRIGGS. I appreciate the question. 

It is one thing to say I posted a job on the Internet. It is another 

to actually reach the American workers who are unemployed. And 

while people feel that they are meeting the needs of the regulation, 

it is clear when we see job openings appear, if Wal-Mart says that 

they are looking for workers, people line up around the block. So 

there is a level of publicity that we know works in reaching American workers. We do not see in the record, if you look at fiscal year 

2012, any H-2B applications from Tunica, Mississippi, which is a 

very rural area. So the idea that Americans will not do this type 

of work, well, Americans do this type of work. In Reno, Nevada, 

there are no H-2B applications. People in America do this kind of 

work. We are a hard-working people in America. 

So I think it is the ability to really reach Americans, and the 

problem is that we are bottling up the regulations that the Department of Labor was trying to put in place to improve the process 

of recruiting and reaching American workers. It is not just the Department’s fault. There are court cases. Congress has consistently 

intervened into the implementation of the rules. So creating the 

crises that these businesses are suffering through now is the result 

not of the administration but of the courts and of Congress interfering with the implementation of a set of rules that would have 

improved the recruitment of American workers and would have 

prevented the abuse of foreign labor recruiters that we know turns 

this program into a very ugly type of program. Those things have 

to be cleaned out. 

Mr. BARBER. Thank you, Mr. Spriggs. 

My next question is for both Mr. Dean and Ms. Bishop. Same 

question. Let me just set it up this way. 

My wife and I were former small business owners for 22 years. 

We never had to use this visa program, but many of our community do. We hear on this Committee a lot about the amount of red 

tape and bureaucracy that hurts small businesses from developing, 

from growing, and I really want to make sure that we are doing 

everything we can to reduce or eliminate it. 

So Mr. Dean and Ms. Bishop, the same question. You had spoken 

about the inefficiencies within the H-2B program, including paperwork, long processing delays. Could you give us specific recommendations of what we should do, what we can do to streamline 

the program and make it easier for small tourism businesses who 

need the program while still guaranteeing the protection of American jobs? 

Mr. DEAN. Thank you, Congressman. I am glad to hear that 

question because I think that is what a lot of small businesses are 

asking you to do is to make this process more efficient. 

In our community, we actually have hoteliers who will start this 

hiring process in October for a temporary seasonal employee that 

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actually arrives in June, an eight month period. I suspect that part 

of the reason for that is because of the recruiting that has to go 

on, and we agree with that. We do not question that at all. I also 

suspect that part of the reason for that may be the fact that you 

can have as many as four governmental agencies involved in this 

process. Now, some of that, referencing the ranking member’s comments earlier, is because of that necessary oversight that the federal government has to provide to protect American workers. We 

understand that. We embrace that. We certainly agree with that. 

But there may well be some opportunities to reduce the paperwork 

and the handoffs between the agencies, and also to consider perhaps a slightly reduced administrative process for those returning 

workers. Not all of the workers that come for the seasonal jobs are 

returning workers but many of them are. In fact, many return to 

the same properties year after year after year, so it might well provide some opportunities not only for those businesses but for the 

federal government agencies involved to make the process more efficient in that regard. 

Mr. BARBER. Mr. Chairman, with your indulgence may I ask 

Ms. Bishop to respond? 

Chairman RICE. You are indulged. 

Mr. BARBER. Thank you, sir. 

Ms. Bishop, please. 

Ms. BISHOP. There are a few things that can make this program 

much more streamlined. We agree with the process in that you do 

need to make sure and test the market for American workers, but 

in many seasonal areas there is negative population growth, negative. Or the population may be in our area 66 percent is over the 

age of 65 or under the age of 17. They are not there. 

But as far as the process, I think one of the things that would 

be very helpful is for the U.S. embassies to just let returning workers drop off their passports, do their fingerprints, and then approve 

them. They are coming repeatedly. You can check a record on a 

computer that shows that they paid their taxes, they did not overstay their visas, they worked their jobs. They did everything correctly. You do not need to schedule an embassy appointment that 

is two to three to four weeks later, making the workers arrive 

much later. That would be a great thing if we could get the State 

Department to do that. 

I think the other thing that would be really well done if we could 

do it is when we do the third step of this four step process, which 

is Department of Homeland Security, it would be great if we could 

e-file those applications and pay for those with a debit card instead 

of having to file documents this much to get 10 workers into the 

country. That would be a big lifesaver because the Labor Department, to their credit, is now doing an e-filing process for both the 

prevailing wage and both the labor certificates, and we embrace 

that. We think that is great. Now let us get the other agencies to 

do the same and we would be very happy. 

Mr. BARBER. Well, thank you for that last suggestion. I am on 

the Oversight Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee. 

I will definitely take that up and see what we can do. 

Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman RICE. Thank you, sir. 

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I want to thank our witnesses for their testimony and participation today. While the H-2B visa program is relatively small, it is 

a vital source of temporary, legal foreign workers used by small 

businesses that cannot find enough American workers to fill their 

seasonal job openings. The temporary suspension of the program 

and the mid-season wage rate increase pose real challenges for 

small tourism businesses. We will continue to work with the small 

business community to ensure that the Department of Homeland 

Security and the Department of Labor examine whether increasing 

labor costs on small businesses utilizing this program is appropriate given the slow economic recovery. 

I ask unanimous consent that members have five legislative days 

to submit statements and supporting materials for the records. 

Without objection, so ordered. 

This hearing is now adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 2:23 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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Testimony of Sarah M. Diment 

Before the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax 

and Capital Access 

Committee on Small Business 

U.S. House of Representatives 

June 12, 2013 

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Dear Mr. Chairman Rice, Madam Ranking Member Chu, and 

Members of the Committee: 

Thank you for inviting me here today to speak on ‘‘The Seasonal 

Employment Needs of Small Tourism Businesses and H-2B Visa 

Policy.’’ My name is Sarah Diment, a 3rd generation hotelier at 

The Beachmere Inn, in Ogunquit Maine, southern York County. 

Our complex of buildings offers various accommodations from hotel 

rooms and suites to a full service cottage. We have 73 rooms to 

service daily. I hope to put a face on the challenges of running a 

business in a seasonal community on the coast of Maine and the 

difficulties we have in staffing for the peak summer and fall 

months and what that means to my own business and to our industry. 

Ogunquit is a seasonable tourist destination, located 87 miles 

north of Boston and is within a three-hour drive of the most populated areas on the East Coast. We are only a six-hour drive from 

New York City, where many of our July and August guests originate. 

Ogunquit offers miles of pristine white sandy beaches, a famous 

1-mile walk along the ocean called Marginal Way, and a working 

fishing cove surrounded by restaurants and shops. We cater to visitors who return for generations. This past week I spoke to a guest 

who has been coming to our Inn since the last 1960’s. Tourism is 

the principal source of income for many York county residents and 

businesses and is heavily relied upon during the summer months 

to help businesses survive the quiet winter season. 

We are in the business of hospitality. There are no excuses for 

not having a clean room, working amenities, or proper food service 

when our guests arrive. They don’t care if we are short-handed or 

that we cannot find help during the season. They expect and deserve a perfect stay, as they are paying for it. During the past 10 

years or so it has been increasingly difficult to find help in the 

housekeeping department during the summer and fall months. Our 

business peaks from mid May to the beginning of November. During 2012, we had a monthly occupancy of May 15–31 83.96%, June 

78%, July 99.8%, August 99.9%, September 98.5%, October 84%. 

We currently employ 14 people in the housekeeping department 

(2 part-time, 1 supervisor and 11 Americans who average 30–35 

hours or more). Typically we require 17 full time housekeepers to 

make the department run smoothly. As we employ mostly single 

mothers, our average of 30–35 hours is based on accommodations 

we must make for family and childcare situations. We had used the 

H-2B program for the past 10 years or so, but due to the changes 

in rules we opted out of the program last year. 

We attempted to apply for visas this year, but due to the ‘‘hold’’ 

on petitions (and issues that may affect us next year if we were to 

drop out once the processing at the Department of Labor had 

begun) we chose to withdraw our petition. We could not wait with 

uncertainty as to when our petition would be approved for this 

coming season. 

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It also concerns me that the wages for these positions are set at 

the federal level by the Department of Labor, a wage called the 

‘‘Prevailing Wage’’ which is not commensurate with the wages paid 

by hoteliers in my area. Maine minimum wage is currently $7.50 

per hour; federally, the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. I had to 

research minimum wage rates, as I don’t think I’ve ever paid someone minimum wage at my inn. We start our housekeepers, with no 

experience necessary, at $9.00 to $10.00 per hour, with those having some cleaning experience starting at the higher end. 

Before dropping out of the program this year, the prevailing wage for housekeeping was determined to be $9.39 per hour based 

on the determination give to us by the Department of Labor on 

February 15, 2013. Then the Department of Labor revised that figure to $10.54 per hour, communicated to us on May 20, 2013. 

That’s an increase of $1.15 an hour in a three-month span. We determine room rates by December of the year prior, rates that we 

provide to our guests, and rates our guests expect us to honor. We 

cannot change the room rates to accommodate a wage increase in 

the largest department at our Inn now that the season has already 

begun. We work within a budget, as most prudent small business 

owners do. I’m also troubled that this rate is targeted at only the 

properties who utilize the H-2B program. Because we have more 

rooms than say, a fellow competitor at the property next door of 35 

rooms, we have to pay our American and H-2B workers more. That 

smaller hotel may not need seasonal help to get through the summer, but because we do, and, because we find those people through 

the H-2B visa program, we are penalized with a higher wage. This 

wage also applies to my American workers, which in the short run 

is a good deal for them. However, once they leave us for other employment or to pursue another career, they will quickly find that 

entry-level work in many industries in Maine does not start at 

$10.54 per hour. It seems that we are creating a false expectation, 

one that does not reflect entry-level wages in our area. This new 

higher wage would affect the benefits I would offer, the level I contribute toward health insurance and retirement plans and how we 

allocate revenues going back into the Inn’s capital improvements. 

For 2013, we have been actively recruiting through employee referrals, newspaper ads, and online recruiting efforts since March 

with these results: 

Responses to our housekeeping ads: 16 

No-shows for interviews: 9 

Interviews conducted: 7 

Reference checks indicated not hirable: 2 

Candidates who came in to interview but showed obvious lack of 

interest: 2 

Job offers declined: 2 

Candidates who were hired for other positions in the hotel: 1 

Number of housekeepers hired through advertising: 0 

Number of housekeepers hired through employee referrals: 3 

We had once tried to recruit American workers by advertising in 

northern Maine, where unemployment levels were higher and inSBREP-219 with DISTILLER

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dustries such as paper mills and manufacturing were closing. We 

experienced some inquiries but they were mostly from workers who 

had families they did not want to leave behind. Housing in the 

summer months is next to impossible to find at a reasonable rates, 

thus we were unable to provide family housing that would be affordable based on the one person working a seasonal position. We 

quickly realized that lack of affordable housing and the seasonal 

nature of the job made these positions undesirable. This past weekend, I tried recruiting housekeepers while attending my cousin’s 

graduation in Bangor, Maine. Although I was prepared to let them 

leave mid August to start college and drive to Bangor to get them, 

I could not get any takers. There genuinely seemed to be a lack of 

enthusiasm in doing housekeeping work. 

Locally, as of January 2013, Ogunquit had 1,098 registered voters with 44 restaurant establishments and 65 hotels/B&Bs/inns 

representing 2,561 hotel rooms, not counting rental homes and 

condos. The median age in our town is approximately 61.7 years 

old. We currently have more hotels rooms than residents. At the 

height of the season, we can see up to 50,000 people in town, including overnight visitors as well as day-trippers. 

Many have asked why we don’t hire students. As our coastal 

town is not near any college campuses, recruiting from those attending summer school has proven fruitless. The University of New 

Hampshire is 27 miles away, a 40-minute commute; the University 

of Southern Maine is 38 miles to the north, a 55-minute drive; and, 

the University of New England is 22 miles, a 46-minute drive. 

Many college students are working in internships for the summer, 

as they must shore up their resumes far in advance of graduation 

in this difficult job market. The high cost of college tuition has 

caused many of those students to work an internship during the 

day and take job during the evenings. Housekeeping must be done 

during the day. Housekeeping is no longer a job that is valued nor 

sought by college students. 

So we turn to surrounding communities as a source in hiring. We 

compete not only with the other 65 hotels/B&Bs/inns in our town, 

but also with well known summer vacation spots such as 

Kennebunkport, Old Orchard Beach, York, Biddeford Pool and 

more. 

There are about 18,000 hotel rooms south of Portland, Maine to 

the New Hampshire border. That does not include the demands for 

the hiring needs of retail shops, restaurants or attractions that are 

looking for seasonal help to operate during the summer months. 

We primarily recruit from the Sanford area, a 20-mile drive that 

takes about 35 minutes. Sanford has equally easy access to 

Kennebunkport, Wells, Ogunquit and Biddeford for job opportunities, yet there were only 20,798 residents there in 2010. Smaller 

communities surrounding Sanford are also sources of recruitment, 

but the primary area of available applicants is in Sanford. Clearly, 

we do not have the human resources available to work at just the 

hotel industry to clean rooms given the demographics of our region 

and the competition for the other jobs, seasonal or year round. 

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Hiring H-2B workers is not an easy, or inexpensive way of recruiting employees. We pay approximately $3,100 in agency fees 

and $1,700 for USCIS fees to process the paperwork. We also pay 

the transportation costs for each worker to Ogunquit Maine, from 

their home country. The myriad paperwork, applications, 

verification and costs make this program one of the more expensive 

ways to find housekeepers. This is a complicated and expensive 

program to use, but is one that has been able to fulfill our seasonal 

needs and support our American workers. 

That being said, the H-2B housekeepers who have worked for us 

are treated as we would any employee. They are paid wages that 

are comparable to our local workforce, if not more, based on their 

years of service, just as any American worker would be. They are 

provided housing (which we built in 2007) with an apartment offering 2 bathrooms, washer/dryer, full kitchen (with 3 refrigerators) 

AC, TV, and, from some rooms, ocean views. Workers walk 75 feet 

to the housekeeping office in our main building to report for work. 

They only pay $80.00 a week for rent (everything included, except 

food) and are provided transportation by one of our staff members 

for weekly shopping trips to local grocery stores and big box retailers. 

They are afforded all of the same benefits that our local seasonal 

workers are offered. They are eligible for our Employee Retirement 

program after the obligatory waiting period. This past season, the 

employer contribution was 11% of the employee’s gross yearly 

wages. This retirement program is funded 100% by The Beachmere 

Inn. They pay taxes and remit Social Security weekly deductions 

even though they will never be able to use the benefits. They work 

hard to earn money to shop for goods that they then send home to 

support their families. 

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In October 2011, our four H-2B workers shipped 25 barrels and 

5+ boxes of goods back to Jamaica. Everything in this shipment 

was a result of the money they earned while here in the U.S. 

That’s a lot of shopping for just four women. This is money that 

is rolled right back into our economy and is something to be said 

for these hard working employees. They also pay a U.S. shipping 

company to send everything back, at a cost of $75.00+ a barrel. 

The impact of not being able to shore up our year-round staff 

during the summer and fall affects us in many ways. We often 

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have to pull staff members from other departments in to assist 

housekeepers, thus delaying work that should be done in their own 

departments. We have turned to a 6-day workweek for our yearround housekeeper, which impacts them for childcare, gasoline 

costs and physical exhaustion. If any of you have ever tried housekeeping, it’s not a job for the faint of heart. It is a physical job, 

where you are on your feet most of the day with many tasks requiring bending, kneeling, lifting, twisting and turning. Asking our 

year round staff to work more to cover the seasonal needs means 

we are taxing them physically and putting them at risk for injury 

due to the sheer nature of the job. Or should we shut down rooms 

to shield them from the work and overtime? 

I am now analyzing what services I may not be able to offer (or 

have to reduce) for this season, as I will not have the staff to do 

it all. Staff removed from one area to help in another area means 

we will not be able offer all programs we might wish to. Making 

these choices is going to hinder what I can do later this season in 

capital improvements, employee resources and purchases of goods 

and services for the amenities we may drop. 

The H-2B program is a supplement to our year-round American 

workforce, allowing our business to operate at full capacity so that 

we can be as successful as we can be, rolling revenue and benefits 

back into the workforce and our local economy. 

We didn’t get to celebrate 75 years of operation by not employing 

Americans and do not plan on continuing to operate without our 

valued local employees at the helm; however, operating without 

proper seasonal staffing will force us to make drastic changes. H2B staffing is not a luxury; it is critical for the operation and 

growth of my business and for the many other businesses in Maine 

who realize a dramatic seasonal increase in their businesses. 

I hope you can see that we are not using this program as an easy 

fix, but as a critical business need for the employment, not a displacement or infringement on the success of our year-round American workers. Thank you very much for the opportunity to testify. 

I am happy to answer any questions you may have. 

Sarah Diment, Owner 

The Beachmere Inn 

Ogunquit, Maine 

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Statement of William E. Spriggs, Ph.D. 

Chief Economist, American Federation of Labor and Congress of 

Industrial Organizations 

Testimony before the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and 

Capital Access 

Of the House Committee on Small Business 

Hearing on ‘‘Help Wanted Seasonal Employment Needs of Small 

Tourism Businesses’’ 

Wednesday, June 12, 2013 

Thank you Chairman Rice for this opportunity to appear before 

your subcommittee. And thanks also to Ranking member Congresswoman Chu for this chance to explain the plight of the millions of 

unemployed Americans looking for a chance at any work. 

Today we stand over five years into the wrath of the Great Recession. The number of payroll positions in America remains over 

2.4 million less than in January 2008. At the rate of job creation 

last month, it would take more than thirteen months to get back 

to that pre-recession level of employment—meaning a net job 

growth of zero jobs over an almost six and a half year period. In 

the interim, America’s labor force has grown over 1.5 million, and 

will grow larger over the next year. The result is we have a backlog 

of Americans looking for jobs—officially 11.7 million. The brunt of 

the difficulty in the labor market has fallen on young workers who 

are suffering from the lowest levels of employment on record; fewer 

than 38 percent of 18 and 19 year olds have jobs, and among those 

20 to 24 the share with jobs is below 61 percent, well below full 

employment levels when the figure should be thirteen percentage 

points higher. And, for those with jobs, wages have been essentially 

flat, rising only three percent over this period when adjusted for inflation. 

So, to put it bluntly, we are still in the midst of an American job 

crisis; especially for entry level jobs for young Americans. It has 

never been more crucial for America’s policy makers—in Congress 

and in the Administration—to pull together to insure job opportunities for the almost 12 million Americans looking for work, and to 

protect the wages of those at work, many of whom are working 

part-time but would like to work full-time. 

An important policy would be for Congress to join with the Administration to insure that job opportunities being created are fully 

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1 CATA vs. Solis,—,F.Supp.—,2013 WL 1163426, *13 (E.D. Pa. 2013) (CATA II) 

available to the millions of Americans looking for work, while protecting the wages of working people. Straddled with court cases 

and appropriation blocks from Congress, the Administration has already delayed several times the implementation of new rules over 

the use of temporary, non-immigrant workers in entry level jobs 

like young Americans desperately need. Over the course of the recovery, Congress has worked with the Administration to pass various tax cuts aimed at helping small businesses, in particular, add 

workers—ranging from the Small Business Jobs Act to the HIRE 

Act. These tax cuts have given small business extra tax incentives 

to add workers to their payrolls. But, these efforts will be undermined if the jobs are given to non-immigrant temporary workers, 

or if workers are brought in with wages to undercut the competitiveness of small businesses struggling to take advantage of the tax 

cuts and boost their local economy. 

The loser when wages are set low by a few firms are not just 

Americans denied job opportunities, but the hard working businesses and their employees fighting to restore an economy that 

works for everyone. The economic analysis done by the Department 

of Labor to study its interim final wage rule for the H-2B non-agricultural temporary, non-immigrant work visa program showed the 

Department on average certified employers for 79,305 H-2B positions in FY 2011 and FY 2012. So, the bulk of businesses need protection from this program being abused to gain competitive advantage. 

Unfortunately, the regulations for the H2B program have been 

caught in a struggle between courts and Congress. This has hurt 

businesses that may have need for the program, and delayed policy 

makers from coalescing around a sound set of policies that protect 

the over 11 million unemployed Americans seeking jobs in having 

access to jobs created, in part, by numerous recent tax changes to 

benefit small business in creating those jobs. 

The courts have not accepted the premise that the Department 

of Labor should adopt multiple wage levels for the type of job typical of the H-2B program.1 The finds of the court appear consistent 

with the Bureau of Labor Statistics characterization of these jobs 

has having relatively lower skill levels compared to many jobs, and 

therefore have a wage structure that does not reflect skill differences. 

The source of the Department of Labor’s wage rule data is the 

Occupational Employment Statistics report of the Bureau of Labor 

Statistics. The OES is a huge data base that collects information 

on occupations and wages for about 800 different occupational categories. The sample size of the survey is large enough to generate 

estimates at the national, state and sub-state level, including for 

every metropolitan and non-metropolitan area in a state. The sample is from establishments of every size, so that small establishments are included, and across all industries—except agriculture, 

fishing, forestry and private households. The sample averages data 

over a three year period to insure that it is representative for detailed occupations in small geographic areas. These steps yield a 

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data set of over 1.2 million different U.S. establishments and captures about 62 percent of employment. Given the size of the samples, and the technical issues involved in designing a proper probability-based sample similar to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 

use of employer wage surveys should be strongly discouraged. The 

need for fair, accurate, reliable and replicable results in policy 

making means it would not be efficient or optimal to use inaccurate 

surveys and the cost of such an accurate survey is prohibitive for 

employers. 

If an employer pays below the average for an occupation in their 

area, they lower the average for the occupation in that area. So, 

the Department of Labor is correct in setting the wage for certification of an H-2B visa at the average for the occupation in an area. 

Further, the setting of low wages feeds into a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is possible to model the behavior of someone searching for 

a job, acquiring knowledge of job openings and wages in their area. 

When the workers do their job search, they will, in-a-away mimic 

the survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics; though they are unlikely to look at as many firms, or replicate the probability sampling that the Bureau conducts. In the end, the worker searching 

for a job will arrive at a good estimate of the average wage in their 

occupation in their area. If their search is rational, they will try for 

the jobs with the highest wages. So, the worker, in doing their 

search, will turn down wages that are below average, knowing 

what the distribution of wages looks like; when they encounter 

wages that are below average, that time spent in that search will 

slow their search for a job, and they will spend more time unemployed. It will also be frustrating for the employer who offers low 

wages, because they will have to review applicants who are, in the 

end, uninterested in the job offer. Over time, the workers who will 

settle on the lower wages are likely to have been unemployed 

longer, and are likely to appear less skilled to employers than the 

workers who matched with the employers paying closer to the average wage or higher. So, employers who set the wage too low will 

either think there are no available workers, or do not wish to hire 

the workers who are left available at the low wage. 

More could be done to protect the wages of American workers 

and the competitiveness of the businesses that work hard to hire 

Americans. The OES is an excellent source for getting estimates of 

wages. But, if wages are offered to foreign workers that are below 

the wages set between employers and employees in a collective bargaining agreement, then the competitive position of those firms is 

at risk from an employer trying to undercut the profitability of the 

unionized establishment by paying a lower wage to foreign workers. And, those businesses that contract with the federal government and are paying prevailing wages, either under the Davis 

Bacon Act or the Service Contract Act, are similarly being undercut 

by firms paying lower wages to foreign workers. 

Unfortunately, many H-2B workers gain access to the program 

through foreign labor recruiters who illegally charge the workers 

fees. Many H-2B workers, then, arrive in America already in debt. 

The result is that much of what those foreign workers earn has to 

be repatriated to repay the foreign labor recruiter in their home 

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2Southern Poverty Law Center, Close to Slavery, Guest Worker Programs in the United States, 

2013 edition, accessed on the internet (June 10, 2013): http://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/ 

files/downloads/publication/SPLC-Close-to-Slavery-2013.pdf. 

country. That means that rather than circulate their wage money 

in the local American economy, much of their pay has to be sent 

back home. This in turn depresses the local economy, because tourism—which can be a great net exporter for our country—is being 

offset by ‘‘importing’’ the labor value added of the industry. Organizations like the Southern Law Poverty Center have uncovered too 

many cases of abuse of the program under its existing rules.2 Efforts by the Administration to monitor and fight against this type 

of misuse of the workers and of the H-2B program are unfortunately not being implemented because of battles in the courts and 

with Congress. 

Tourism is an important industry for the United States. That 

means we should be sure that our policies are giving Americans the 

best opportunities to acquire the jobs, experience and skills to excel 

in industries we want to promote through public policy. To maximize the potential for gathering the full value-added of the industry, it is essential that we turn first to the millions of unemployed 

Americans for these jobs. Yes, the demand for these jobs has seasonal variation, but to young people looking for entry level positions, these are good steps. And, to the many companies hiring 

Americans in the tourism industry it is very important to keep 

them protected from low-wage competition that undercuts their efforts to protect and promote middle class American values. 

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Testimony of Jane Nichols Bishop 

Before the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and 

Capital Access 

Committee on Small Business 

U.S. House of Representatives 

June 12, 2013 

The Seasonal Employment Needs of Small Tourism Businesses and 

H-2B Visa Policy 

Thank you very much Chairman Rice and Ranking Member Chu 

for your leadership in holding this important hearing. I would also 

like to thank full committee Chairman Graves and Ranking Member Vela ́zquez. 

My name is Jane Nichols Bishop, and I am the president of Peak 

Season Workforce of Mashpee, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. For 

more than a decade, Peak Season Workforce has successfully 

helped seasonal tourism-based businesses navigate the intricate 

government filing process to successfully obtain H-2B work visas. 

Peak Season Workforce currently represents more than 100 employers seeking H-2B work visas to supplement their American 

work forces during peak visitor season. Incidentally, we are a 

small, family-fun business with just three employees including myself. 

We represent hotels, motels, inns, bed & breakfast establishments, restaurants, clam shacks, pizza shops, a public transit operator and coffee shops. All of them experience a significant increase 

in business during their seasons. We also work on behalf of small 

businesses that support them and their customers. These include 

commercial laundries, bike rental shops, golf courses, retail stores, 

ice cream parlors, party rental companies, landscapers, trash haulers, and a bulk paper supplier. These businesses depend on workers with H-2B visas to fill essential jobs such as housekeepers, 

front desk clerks, cooks, short-order cooks, food preparation workers, dishwashers, dining room attendants, servers, laundry workers, retail and stock clerks, tent installers, landscapers, trash collectors and shuttle bus drivers. 

Let me make this clear: my client employers that use H-2B international workers are not able to find enough U.S. workers to fulfill 

their staffing needs; they use workers from abroad to supplement— 

not replace—Americans in their work force. Each one of our 100+ 

employers hires American workers but does not have enough of 

them during their busy season. 

Small businesses located in seasonal destinations, such as Cape 

Cod and the coast of Maine, have between five and eight months 

on average to earn a year’s worth of revenue. Some of these businesses chose to stay open during the non-seasonal months with a 

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limited number of American staff. Others are open only for the season and close in off-season months. 

Seasonal small businesses wish they had more American workers 

from their immediate areas. They cannot rely anymore on high 

school or college students due to their school schedules. Most colleges start classes in early-to-mid August, and students must return to school while seasonal businesses remain busy through the 

summer and fall ‘‘shoulder’’ seasons. This often extends to the Columbus Day, three-day weekend in October and for some businesses, beyond that into Thanksgiving. Child labor laws correctly 

restrict the amount of labor young high school students can provide. And the reality today is that college students often seek professional summer internships related to their fields of study so they 

have a better chance of getting a professional job when they graduate. Regrettably, lower skilled jobs cannot compete. 

Working-age adults and retirees who live in popular tourist areas 

are not interested in entry-level jobs that are temporary in nature 

and often without benefits. Seasonal work is often physically demanding and can be challenging work for retirees who may want 

easy part-time jobs. 

This year, small businesses encountered a particularly vexing 

problem that threw a last-minute monkey wrench into the application process and caused costly delays of many visas applications. 

On March 21, a federal judicial ruling ordered the Labor Department to stop issuing new prevailing wages because of an allegedly 

flawed methodology that had been used successfully since 2008. 

The Labor and Homeland Security Departments responded by 

freezing all pending applications for up to 45 days. This stopped 

the H-2B application process in its tracks and created a major approval backup at U.S. embassies worldwide. Businesses could not 

get their H-2B staff approved and were left without help at the 

start of this season. Today, 25–30 of my small business clients still 

wait for final approval while the season is in full swing. 

Any time there is even a one-day approval delay at either the 

Labor Department or at the Department of Homeland Security, it 

can add up to a week’s delay in embassy clearances. Because we 

are experiencing delays now, some small tourism-based businesses 

are taking extreme measures to survive. These include turning 

business away because of staff shortages. Other examples: 

• Paying excessive amounts of overtime to American workers to 

cover the shifts of the missing H-2B workers 

• Closing restaurants one day a week because there is not 

enough staff to rotate all shifts over seven days 

• Cutting out a meal service, often at brunch or lunch 

• Shuttering part of the dining room because the kitchen can’t 

handle the orders with existing staff 

• Opening later or closing early 

• Taking blocks of sleeping rooms out of service for hotel/motel 

guests because there is not enough staff to clean the rooms 

• Requiring managers and owners to do the work of missing H2B staff 

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Along the New England coast, there is a small inn with a restaurant that is feeling the brunt of these problems. Now, at the 

middle of June, the owner has been unable to offer the dinner service because her H-2B cooks are stuck in the approval process. She 

is losing reservations. In fact, there was a planned wedding reception that could not go on because of inadequate staff. The owner 

has resorted to cleaning guest rooms herself while her H-2B housekeepers are waiting in their home countries for approval. 

On the island of Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts, an 

accommodations business had 27 guest rooms occupied over Memorial Day weekend and no H-2B staff to clean rooms, change linens 

and prepare breakfast. 

Please understand that despite these problems, Cape Cod, the 

coast of Maine and other destinations are open for business, and 

visitors should not be deterred from coming. The ocean is still 

there, meals are being served, and the days are warm and nights 

are cool. The chambers of commerce are eager to welcome and 

serve guests. 

When this year’s approvals resumed at the Labor Department, 

businesses were told flat-out to pay their H-2B workers higher 

wages in order to continue with the program. For most of our businesses, the new mandated wages went up ten to 34 percent per 

hour. In dollar amounts, we saw an increase of $3 to $8 per hour 

per employee, including American workers. Businesses cannot survive with this type of sudden labor cost increase. Tourism businesses already have set their budgets for the year and fixed their 

rates for their services. In some cases, an entry-level worker with 

no experience will now make more per hour than their supervisors 

do under the new prevailing wage rates. This will cause a ripple 

effect, because supervisors will not work for less than the workers 

they manage. All of this from Labor Department who told the judge 

that wages would not increase ... ‘‘at most, $2.12 per hour’’. 

Employers already pay more to American and H-2B workers because they must adhere to prevailing rates versus state and federal 

minimum wage requirements. This puts them at a competitive disadvantage with companies that choose not to employ H-2B workers. Now with the supplemental wage requirements, H-2B employers face payroll costs that are significantly higher than those elsewhere in their communities. It is simply not sustainable. 

Over the past two years, Congress has repeatedly blocked the 

Labor Department from implementing prevailing wage increases 

that burden struggling small businesses. We strongly encourage 

Congress to act again. Please encourage the Departments of Labor 

and Homeland Security to rescind this interim final rule and replace the regulation with a more reasonable approach to setting 

wages as was done under the 2008 regulations. One approach 

might be the H-2B wage language that is included in S. 744, the 

‘‘Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act immigration,’’ currently being debated in the United 

States Senate. It is also important that the Departments implement a new more reasonable approach to setting wages without 

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shutting down the H-2B program and causing further processing 

delays on already struggling small businesses. 

On November 18, 2011 Congress enacted the Consolidated and 

Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012, Public Law 112–55, 

125 Stat. 552 (November 2011 Appropriations Act) which was a 

spending bill that contained Department of Labor’s appropriations. 

It prohibited Labor Department from using funds to implement, administer or enforce the 2011 wage rule. Subsequent appropriations 

bills for Labor Department have continued the prohibition on the 

implementation of the 2011 wage rule. The prohibition will end 

after September 30, 2013, unless Congress again acts to extend the 

prohibition, preferably sooner rather than later. 

As you know, small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy. Many in popular tourism destinations are dependent on international workers with H-2B visas to have successful seasons. They 

cannot thrive without adequate staff or with the uncertainty of 

when staff will become available. Businesses cannot show a successful bottom line if they are hobbled by bureaucratic decisionmaking in Washington that imposes unreasonable and uncompetitive wage rates. 

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