“ There ’ s great uncertainty as we sit here today ,” Mark Neuberger , a Florida-based labor and employment attorney at Foley & Lardner LLP , told Construction Dive . “ It could all settle down or it could be disastrous .”
Industry reaction
Brian Turmail , vice president of public affairs and strategic initiatives for the Associated General Contractors of America , said the association supports E-Verify — if its use is paired with other reforms , including the establishment of a temporary guest worker program for the construction industry .
Calling the current national approach to immigration “ extremely flawed ,” Turmail said federal officials have long put the responsibility for checking workers ’ legal status on employers — where he said it doesn ’ t belong .
“ At least E-Verify gives them some ability to do that ,” he told Construction Dive . “ But make no mistake , expanding E-Verify does not compensate for the lack of broader , desperately needed immigration reforms . These include better border security , the establishment of a guest worker program and providing some kind of path to legal status for the undocumented workers currently in this country .”
Beyond the requirement taking effect within six months of passage for firms with more than 10,000 employees , companies with between 500 and 9,999 employees would be required to begin using E-Verify beginning nine months after enactment . The timeframe is expanded to one year for employers with between 20 and 499 employees and to 18 months after enactment for all other employers .
Employers that begin operations after the bill ’ s enactment would have one year to comply .
The bill ’ s minimum wage increase provisions would also be implemented in a phased manner . The federal hourly minimum wage would be increased to $ 8 on the effective date , followed by increments of less than $ 1 each year until reaching $ 11 four years after the effective date . Thereafter , the minimum wage would be indexed to inflation every two years .
Ryan Golden contributed to this report .
What ’ s next ?
While the future of the Senate legislation is uncertain , if the bill becomes law , its implementation will be slowly rolled out .
SEPTEMBER 2023 • DITCHMEN 9