The two sides agreed on how to overcome the final sticking points, including how much the foreign workers would be paid and which industries would be exempt from the guest-worker program. Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 A similar bipartisan group in the House has been meeting on and off for nearly four years, and hopes to unveil its own immigration legislation shortly. President Obama is eager for an overhaul of the immigration system and has threatened to step in with his own plan if Congress does not move quickly with legislation of its own. According to the person who disclosed the guest-worker deal, Schumer called White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough to inform him of the deal. A White House spokesman said in a statement Saturday that the president “continues to be encouraged by progress being made by the bipartisan group of Senators,” adding, “We look forward to seeing language once it is introduced, and expect legislation to move forward as soon as possible.” 
 
 Businesses had lobbied for 400,000 new visas under the new program, but labor unions wanted far fewer because of concerns that such a system would negatively affect wages and benefits for American workers. Under the Senate’s proposal, businesses would be allowed starting in April 2015 to hire 20,000 foreign workers for low-skilled jobs in a new “W visa” program — the number rising to 75,000 in 2019, according to people familiar with the details. Those familiar with the talks said it would take many years before the visa program would approach the annual proposed cap of 200,000 foreign workers. Though low-skilled construction workers will be included in the visa program, construction unions persuaded the negotiators to exclude certain types of more skilled jobs — like crane operators and electricians — from the program, officials involved in the talks said. Labor groups wanted to ensure that guest workers would not be paid less than the median wage in their respective industries, and the two sides compromised by agreeing that guest workers would be paid the higher of the prevailing industry wage as determined by the Labor Department or the actual employer wage.
– America's top labor and business groups reached an agreement last night over the final sticking point in overhauling the country's immigration laws, the Washington Post reports. Talking to Sen. Charles Schumer on a conference call, the AFL-CIO's boss and the president of the US Chamber of Commerce agreed in principle on a visa program for foreign workers. All eight senators involved in drafting the bill have not yet signed off, but may soon because they were briefed as negotiations developed, a source tells the Post. Businesses had wanted 400,000 new visas in the program, but labor wanted a much lower number to protect the benefits and wages of US workers. The Senate had proposed allowing 20,000 low-skilled guest workers in the first year, 75,000 by 2020, and 200,000 after several more years, according to insiders. Capital and labor have also agreed on a pay scale for low-skilled immigrant workers, pegging it at the prevailing industry wage used in the last foreign worker program, reports the New York Times.