- North Carolina’s Labor Commissioner backed a federal rule to increase H-1B wage standards.
- The proposal aims to ensure wages reflect true market conditions for foreign workers.
- New 2026 regulations focus on closing loopholes that allow employers to underpay visa holders.
(NORTH CAROLINA) — North Carolina Labor Commissioner Farley backed a proposed federal rule that would tighten prevailing wage standards for H-1B visa workers, aligning the state labor agency with an effort to raise wage protections in one of the country’s best-known temporary work programs.
Farley issued a statement supporting the proposal, which aims to prevent employers from using H-1B visas to fill jobs at below-market pay by making wages reflect market conditions more closely across visa programs.
The proposal appears in a Federal Register notice dated March 27, 2026. It focuses on improving wage protections for the temporary employment of foreign nationals and forms part of a broader push to tighten standards tied to H-1B wages.
Farley framed the position as part of North Carolina’s approach to wage protections. In the statement, the commissioner said the state “believes in” fair compensation standards across visa programs.
Current H-1B rules require employers to pay workers the higher of two figures: the prevailing wage or the actual wage paid to similarly situated U.S. workers in the same position. The new proposal seeks to narrow gaps that critics say can let employers meet the letter of the law while still paying less than a true market rate.
That structure sits at the center of long-running debates over H-1B wages. The visa program allows employers to hire foreign workers temporarily, but the wage requirement is meant to stop companies from undercutting pay for U.S. workers in the same jobs.
The March 27, 2026 notice does not stand alone. It fits within a wider regulatory effort to strengthen how the government measures and enforces wage protections in temporary visa programs.
North Carolina’s endorsement adds a state voice to that federal process. Support from the North Carolina Labor Commissioner signals that the proposal has backing from a state official whose office centers labor standards and worker pay.
Farley’s support also places wage enforcement, rather than visa volume, at the center of the state’s message. The statement did not present the issue as a dispute over whether employers should use the H-1B program, but over how much employers should pay when they do.
Employers in North Carolina that rely on H-1B workers could face tighter pay expectations if the rule takes effect. Any shift in how prevailing wages are calculated or applied would shape hiring costs, compensation planning and compliance reviews for businesses using the visa category.
Workers would feel the change differently. A stricter wage floor would aim to ensure that foreign nationals hired for temporary jobs receive pay that tracks market conditions more closely, while preserving the existing requirement that employers compare that wage with what similarly situated U.S. workers already earn.
The rule’s stated purpose is to close loopholes. Federal officials want to limit cases in which H-1B sponsorship could serve as a path to staffing jobs below the wage levels expected in the local market.
That objective carries weight in a state with a broad mix of employers, from technology and research to health care and other industries that have used the H-1B program. Any federal revision to wage standards would not change the basic role of the visa, but it would change the pay framework employers must satisfy.
North Carolina’s position also reinforces a point often lost in fights over employment visas: wage policy does not stop at the federal line. State labor officials do not write H-1B rules, but their public support can shape how businesses, workers and advocates read the direction of enforcement and compliance.
Farley’s backing came in the form of support for stronger prevailing wage standards, not a separate state proposal. The action leaves the federal government in charge of deciding whether the rule moves forward in final form.
Businesses and workers tracking the proposal now face a waiting period centered on federal updates. The next signals will come through the Federal Register and any later guidance issued by North Carolina labor officials or federal agencies overseeing employment-based visa compliance.
Until then, the proposal stands as a clear marker of where the debate sits in 2026: not over whether wage rules exist for H-1B hiring, but over whether those rules measure the market closely enough to prevent employers from paying below it.
