This was according to Society of Human Resource Center president Eric Plinsky during a live video teleconference with U.S. DOL officials at Northern Marianas College on Thursday last week.
Because employers applying for non-resident U.S. work visas will have to file a prevailing wage determination as part of the visa application process, a big number of local employers and business operators turned up for the three-hour meeting.
William Rabung, director of the National Prevailing Wage Center for the Office of Foreign Labor Certification, and Paul Gotte, supervisory immigration program analyst at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Prevailing Wage Center in Washington, D.C. joined the meeting.
When asked if possible funding is available to conduct a survey, Rabung and Gotte said there is no money available for this purpose.
The U.S. DOL officials said to apply for a prevailing wage, applicants must use the online forms at http://icert.doleta.gov/ for faster processing and follow up.
“Applying for a prevailing wage is much faster when you use iCert compared to emails,” Gotte said.
Gary A. Hiles, chief economist for the Guam Department of Labor and the labor market information director for the Guam Workforce Investment Act program, was also one of the speakers. He discussed what Guam is doing and how it has set up a prevailing wage system in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Labor.
Criteria
Rabung and Gotte presented some criteria on how surveys should be conducted:
• Data on which the wage is based must have been collected within 24 months of the publication date of the survey, or if the employer conducted the survey, within 24 months of the date he employer submitted the survey to the National Prevailing Wage Helpdesk Center.
• A published survey must have been published within 24 months of the date of submission and it must be the most current edition of the survey with wage data that meet the criteria under this section.
• The survey data must represent similar jobs in the area of intended employment — the area within normal commuting distance of the address of employment. If the number of workers in an intended area is insufficient, the employer can expand the area to be surveyed.
• The survey’s job description must match the job description contained in the employer’s request for acceptance to use the survey of other wage data for prevailing wage purposes.
• Cross industry wage data — the wage data must have been collected across industries that employ workers in the occupation.
To conduct the survey, a count or estimate of the number of employers in the area should be gathered. Next, a decision must be made on how many employers must be contacted to produce usable wage results from at least three employees with at least 30 workers. Divide the number of employers to be contacted by the number of employees in the applicable industry, then use the number calculated in the last step to select a random sample of employers to contact..
A survey form should include the definition of a particular occupation, number of workers in the occupation, and the wage rate. The one who conducts the survey can then contact all the employers by calling, writing or sending fax messages to obtain the wage rate and employment data.
Gotte said it usually takes from 30 to 60 days for them to reply to prevailing wage determination applications.
Check out http://icert.doleta.gov, www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov or email [email protected] for more information.
