Quiero saber acerca de...

68190

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 228 / Wednesday, December 1, 2021 / Proposed Rules
some combinations of occupations and geographic areas where this can occur.
For example, workers in higher paid occupations and occupations that are typically performed off farm yet qualify under the H2A program e.g., logging operations have a baseline wage set by the FLS that is substantially below the U.S. market equilibrium according to OEWS data covering the State. Under the proposed rule the AEWR will be increased for these occupations to the State-level OEWS.84 In addition,
workers in occupations that continue to have an AEWR set by the FLS, but in areas where FLS data for a given year cannot be reported, will have the AEWR
set by a weighted average OEWS wage for field and livestock worker occupations which may be below market wage rates for a specific SOC
code and geographic area combination.85 In these examples, some U.S. employers that do not compete with other employers for workers may set wage rates below competitive
imimrn
+

W

equilibrium at a wage level that balances the revenue gains from an additional worker against the cost of raising wages for all employees to attract that marginal worker. Some U.S. and foreign workers who would be willing to work at competitive equilibrium wages may not be willing to work at a lower wage. In these cases, a DWL is produced in the U.S. labor market, but under the proposed rule that DWL is reduced because of the higher AEWR
see Figure.

Baseline DWL
NPRMDWL

AEWRNPRM
AEWRBA
I I

I

I

I
I I
I

I
I

I
I I
I I

Lo
QBAS QNPR Q

labor Quantity
When labor markets are competitive, an AEWR set below the U.S.-only labor market equilibrium wage rate in absence of foreign labor, but above the market equilibrium, with both domestic and foreign labor, results in DWL for the United States because it reduces domestic employer surplus more than it increases domestic worker surplus. In a
competitive labor market with no AEWR, there will be no DWL. Figure 3
illustrates this in a simplified case where domestic and foreign agricultural workers are perfect substitutes, and an infinite supply of foreign agricultural workers are willing to work at wage rate WFOREIGN below the U.S.-worker-only market equilibrium wage rate WUS-ONLY.

The competitive market equilibrium will equal WFOREIGN and domestic employers will hire a combination of QEFFICIENT_US domestic workers and QEFFICIENT_TOTAL QEFFICIENT_US
foreign workers. U.S. DWL will be zero because U.S. total surplus U.S.
employer surplus + U.S. worker surplus is maximized.

84 For example, Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanics, Except Engine 493042, in ME has a 2021 AEWR of $14.99 and under the proposed rule would have an OEWS wage of $22.85.

85 For example, Agricultural Workers, All Other 452099, in SOC has a 2021 AEWR of $11.81. If the FLS data was unavailable it would have a weighted average OEWS wage of $14.18 and the
OEWS wage for that specific occupation is $16.51.
Thus, the weighted average OEWS wage would be below the actual market wage for that occupation.

VerDate Sep<11>2014

16:56 Nov 30, 2021

Jkt 256001

PO 00000

Frm 00025

Fmt 4702

Sfmt 4702

E:FRFM01DEP1.SGM

01DEP1

EP01DE21.001

lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with PROPOSALS1

Figure 2: For some SOC code and area combinations the proposed rule may reduce DWL in the U.S. labor market. Under the baseline the wage set at AEWRBASE allows for the legal hiring of foreign workers below the competitive labor marli:et equilibrium wage rate W.
In a competitive market, employers will bid up wages to W. If employers do not compete with other employers for workers, they may be able to keep wages below W even though it creates a labor shortage. With a large supply of workers who lack bargaining power willing to work at the AEWRBASE wage rate, but others unwilling, the total number of workers willing to work at that wage rate is QBASE, which is below the competitive equilibrium quantity of workers Q. This results in the Baseline DWL. Under the proposed rule the wage set at AEWRNFRM is increased, closer to the competitive labor market equilibrium wage rate W. More workers QNFRM are willing to work at this rate and the DWL in the U.S. labor market decreases to the NPRM DWL.