I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2457
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to impose a limitation on
the wage that the Secretary of Labor may require an employer to
pay an alien who is an H–2A nonimmigrant agricultural worker.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 11, 2001
Mr. CANNON (for himself, Mr. BISHOP, Mr. WHITFIELD, Mr. RADANOVICH,
Mr. LEWIS of Kentucky, Mr. HUTCHINSON, Mr. GOODE, Mr. SHIMKUS,
Mr. PICKERING, Mr. MCHUGH, Mr. SAXTON, Mr. JENKINS, Mr. GREEN
of Wisconsin, Mr. SHOWS, Mr. KELLER, Mr. PUTNAM, Mr. GRAHAM, and
Mr. SWEENEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to impose
a limitation on the wage that the Secretary of Labor
may require an employer to pay an alien who is an
H–2A nonimmigrant agricultural worker.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Wage Equity Act of
2001’’.
SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON H–2A NONIMMIGRANT WAGE RE-
QUIREMENT.
(a) CONDITIONS FOR APPROVAL OF H–2A PETI-
TIONS.—Section 218(a) of the Immigration and Nation-
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1188(a)) is amended by redesignating
paragraph (2) as paragraph (3) and by inserting after
paragraph (1) the following new paragraph:
‘‘(2)(A) In making the certification described in para-
graph (1), the Secretary of Labor may not require an em-
ployer to pay workers more than the greater of—
‘‘(i) the prevailing wage for seasonal agricul-
tural workers in the occupation in the area of in-
tended employment, or
‘‘(ii) the greater of the hourly wage described in
section 6(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of
1938 (29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1)), or the applicable State
minimum wage.
‘‘(B) In complying with subparagraph (A)(i), an em-
ployer (or the employer’s agent) may request and obtain
a prevailing wage determination from the State employ-
ment security agency. An employer who obtains such a
determination and pays the wage determined to be pre-
vailing shall be considered to have met the requirement
of subparagraph (A)(i).
‘‘(C) In lieu of the procedure described in subpara-
graph (B), an employer may rely on other wage informa-
tion, including a survey of the prevailing wages of workers
in the occupation in the area of intended employment that
has been conducted or funded by the employer or a group
of employers, that meets criteria specified by the Secretary
of Labor in regulations.
‘‘(D) If the prevailing wage described in subpara-
graph (A)(i) is an hourly wage, the employer may pay
workers in the occupation by an incentive method of pay
such as a piece rate, task rate, group incentive rate, or
other incentive method, if the average hourly earnings of
the employer’s workers paid by such incentive method,
taken as a group, are at least equal to the prevailing hour-
ly wage required by subparagraph (A)(i) for the hours
worked at the incentive payment method, after making
any additions to any worker’s pay required to comply sub-
paragraph (A)(ii).’’.
(b) DEFINITIONS.—Section 218(i) of the Immigra-
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1188(i)) is amended
by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(3) The term ‘prevailing wage’ means, with re-
spect to an agricultural occupation in an area of in-
tended employment, the rate of wages that includes
the 51st percentile of employees with similar experi-
ence and qualifications in the agricultural occupation
in the area of intended employment, expressed in
terms of the prevailing method of pay for the occu-
pation in the area of intended employment.’’.