Dive brief:
- A bill proposed last week by six Republican senators would require all employers to use the US Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program. to authorize work eligibility and would raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $11.
- Titled the Higher Wages for American Workers Act, the bill proposes a phased expansion of E-Verify that would require employers with 10,000 or more employees to use the system beginning six months after the date of enactment. Smaller employers would be classified based on the size of their workforce, and each category would have a corresponding deadline to begin using E-Verify, an online federal system that allows employers to confirm employee eligibility for work in the US
- The bill would also increase penalties for employers who use unauthorized workers and allow DHS and the Social Security Administration to establish a self-verification process through which individuals can verify their employment eligibility.
Diving knowledge:
In a statement, co-sponsors Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said the measures are intended to deal with illegal immigration. The couple introduced themselves a similar bill in 2021 that could not advance.
“Our proposal would raise wages for millions of workers without putting jobs at risk and would tie wages to inflation to ensure they keep up with rising costs,” Romney said. “Furthermore, requiring employers to use E-Verify would ensure that the wage increase goes to legal workers, which would protect American jobs and eliminate a key driver of illegal immigration.”
Currently, ten states have electronic verification requirements for private employers. When it was Florida law promulgated this summer, advocates said it would protect jobs and contribute to national security, but others predicted a tough road ahead for employers and workers, especially in construction. In 2020, there were approximately 1.4 million foreign-born, noncitizen, and U.S. Hispanic workers, according to CPWR — Construction Research and Training Center.
For Florida employers, the law brings unpredictability at a time of high labor demand and worker shortages.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty as we sit here today,” said Mark Neuberger, a Florida-based labor and employment attorney at Foley & Lardner LLP. he told Construction Dive. “Everything could be fixed or it could be disastrous.”
Industry reaction
Brian Turmail, vice president of public affairs and strategic initiatives for the Associated General Contractors of America, said the association supports E-Verify, if its use is combined with other reforms, including establishing a program of temporary guest workers for the construction industry.
Calling the current national approach to immigration “grossly flawed,” Turmail said federal officials have long placed the responsibility of checking workers’ legal status on employers, where he said it does not belong.
“At least E-Verify gives them some ability to do that,” he told Construction Dive. “But make no mistake, the expansion of E-Verify does not make up for the lack of broader and desperately needed immigration reforms. These include better border security, the establishment of a guest worker program, and providing some on the way to legal status for the undocumented workers currently in this country.”
What’s next?
While the future of the Senate legislation is uncertain, if the bill becomes law, its implementation will roll out slowly. Beyond the requirement to take effect within six months of approval for companies with more than 10,000 employees, companies with between 500 and 9,999 employees should begin using E-Verify nine months after the promulgation The term is extended to one year for employers with between 20 and 499 employees and to 18 months after promulgation for all other employers.
Employers that begin operations after the bill’s enactment would have one year to comply.
The bill’s minimum wage increase provisions would also be phased in. The federal hourly minimum wage would increase to $8 on the effective date, followed by increases of less than $1 each year until reaching $11 four years after the effective date. Subsequently, the minimum wage would be indexed to inflation every two years.
Ryan Golden contributed to this report.
