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Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act
3/6/2024, 8:15 AM
Summary of Bill HR 3734
The bill proposes several key provisions to help essential workers, including increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, providing hazard pay for essential workers, expanding access to affordable healthcare, and offering paid sick leave and family leave. Additionally, the bill aims to strengthen worker protections and rights, such as ensuring safe working conditions and preventing retaliation against workers who speak out about workplace issues.
Furthermore, the Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act seeks to address disparities in pay and benefits for essential workers, particularly those in low-wage industries such as retail, food service, and healthcare. The bill also includes provisions to support small businesses that employ essential workers, such as tax credits and grants to help cover the costs of providing hazard pay and other benefits. Overall, the Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act is designed to recognize the contributions of essential workers and provide them with the support they need to thrive in the workforce. It is a comprehensive piece of legislation that aims to address the challenges faced by essential workers during the pandemic and beyond.
Congressional Summary of HR 3734
Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act
This bill establishes a new nonimmigrant visa for temporary nonagricultural workers (H-2C visa) to fill jobs that have remained open for a certain amount of time and are located in an area where the unemployment rate is 7.9% or less. This visa shall only be available for certain occupations, and those requiring a bachelor's degree or higher level of education shall not be eligible.
The bill imposes various requirements related to H-2C positions, such as requiring that the employer make certain efforts to recruit a U.S. worker beforehand. The employer must register the opening before filling it with an H-2C worker, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shall maintain a publicly available registry of registered positions.
For the first fiscal year after the bill's enactment, no more than 65,000 positions may be registered. For subsequent fiscal years, the number shall be increased or decreased depending on how many positions were registered the previous year and how quickly the allotment was filled. A certain number of allocations shall be reserved for small businesses.
An employer seeking to hire H-2C workers shall register with DHS and provide documentation establishing that the employer meets various qualifications. An employer may become ineligible for registration for certain actions, such as having been penalized for a pattern of willful violation of wage and hour laws.
H-2C workers shall not be entitled to certain federal public benefits.
The Bureau of the Census shall report to Congress on the impact of the H-2C program.
