Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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PARSIPPANY, N.J. -- PR Consultants Inc., a computer software consulting and staffing company in Parsippany, has agreed to pay $121,133 to 25 foreign employees hired as computer software consultants after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found violations of the H-1B wage provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

An investigation conducted by the department’s Wage and Hour Division concluded that from October 2005 through October 2007, the company placed several H-1B employees in non-pay status at various times throughout their employment and paid others less than the rate required by the Act.

“Our investigators found that, between consulting projects, these H-1B employees were placed on non-production status, or ‘benched,’ through no fault of their own, and were not paid,” says Joe Petrecca, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s Northern New Jersey District Office. “We are committed to vigorously enforcing H-1B requirements to ensure that employers do not abuse the program by failing to pay foreign workers wages they are due or taking away jobs that could be available for U.S. workers.”

The H-1B visa program allows foreign workers in professional occupations – such as computer programmers, engineers, physicians and teachers – to enter and work temporarily in the U.S. H-1B workers must be paid the same wage rates and benefits as those paid to U.S. workers already doing the same job in the same area.

The Wage and Hour Division enforces the H-1B wage provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, in addition to other federal laws pertaining to wage payments. The Labor Department’s Web site provides detailed information about hiring foreign workers at www.dol.gov/compliance/audience/foreign_workers.htm.

The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division concluded 30,467 compliance actions and recovered a record $220 million in back wages for more than 341,000 employees in fiscal year 2007. Back-wage collections in fiscal year 2007 represent a 67 percent increase over back wages collected in fiscal year 2001. The number of workers receiving back wages has increased by 58 percent since fiscal year 2001.

For more information please visit www.wagehour.dol.gov or call 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243) toll-free.

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