The information contained in the Form ETA-9141 is the basis for the Secretaryâs determination of the wage employers must pay in order protect against adverse effect on U.S. workersâ wages by the employment of a foreign worker. Prior to submitting requests for most labor certifications or a labor condition applications to the Secretary of Labor, employers must obtain a prevailing wage for the job opportunity based on the place of employment in order to ensure that wages are not being adversely affected by paying foreign workers less than a prevailing wage. Form ETA-9141, Application for Prevailing Wage Determination, is used to collect the necessary information from employers to enable the Department of Labor (Department) to issue a prevailing wage for the occupation and location of the job offer. The Form ETA-9141 is used in the H-2B, H-1B, H-1B1, E-3, and PERM programs administered by the Department.
In order to meet its statutory responsibilities under the INA, the Department must request information from employers seeking to hire and import foreign labor. The Department uses the information collected to determine the appropriate wages that must be paid by an employer to foreign workers in most programs.
The Department proposes minor modifications to the Form ETA-9141, its appendix, the Form ETA-9165, and the accompanying form instructions to improve the collection for the Departmentâs PWDs. The Department has determined that the proposed minor revisions to the Form ETA-9141 and Form ETA-9141, General Instructions, will not have a significant impact on the time burden for completion of the Form ETA-9141 because these changes do not require employers to provide additional information, but merely clarify how and when employers should respond to existing information collections. The incorporation of the Form ETA-9165 into this ICR transfers the number of responses (278) and hourly burden (117), and cost burden of $213,953 imposed by the Form ETA-9165 from OMB Control Number 1205-0509 into this ICR, OMB Control Number 1205-0508. The Department has determined that the minor change to Item E.9.b and the update of references to the OEWS in the Form ETA-9165 will not have a significant impact on the time burden for completion of the Form ETA-9165 because the number of workers surveyed in an employer-provided survey should be readily available to the employer. The total number of responses, burden hours, and monetized costs associated with Form ETA-9141 under this ICR differ from previous estimates.
The estimated number of annual responses, burden hours, and monetized cost of respondent time associated with Form ETA-9141 have increased from previous estimates. The annual responses increased by 10,211, an increase of 3.3% between 2018 and 2022. To estimate the annual burden hours more accurately under this ICR, the Department utilized a three-year average of the total number of respondents that file the Form ETA-9141 during the three precedent FYs (148,512, compared to the previous estimate of 143,194 during the last renewal cycle). The burden hours increased by 5,318, an increase of 3.8% between 2018 and 2022. The Departmentâs estimated total monetized cost is $12,639,822. The change reflects estimates based on the average of prevailing wage data for FYs 2019, 2020, and 2021. This monetized cost increased by $1,442,043, an increase of 12.97% from the previous year FYs 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, the largest source of increased program burden cost is due to the increase in the hourly rate between 2018 and 2022, for the burden activities carried out by 11-3121, Human Resources Managers, which increased from $78.20 to $85.11
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.