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A Tool For Analyzing H-1B Visa Applications Reveals Tech Salary Secrets

Posted by timothy on from the sifting-and-stacking dept.

Tekla Perry writes: The golden age of engineers is not over,' says a French software engineer who developed a tool for mining U.S. Department of Labor visa application data, but, he says, salaries appear to be leveling off. Indeed, salary inflation for software engineers and other technical professionals at Google and Facebook has slowed dramatically, according to his database, and Airbnb and Dropbox pay is down a little, though Netflix pay is through the roof. The data also shows that some large companies appear to be playing games with titles to deflate salaries, and Microsoft is finally offering technology professionals comparable salaries to Apple and Google. There's a lot more to be discovered in this interactive database, and researchers are getting ready to mine it.

6 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Cherry picking salary data by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    These are all companies based in cities with astronomically high costs of living.

  2. The title game by clifwlkr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You can clearly see the way the companies are manipulating the system. Don't hire them as 'engineers', but as 'technology leads' then make up a low salary for them. No, the salary is not minimum wage as posted above, but it is half of what you would have to pay a standard software engineer, and you have their loyalty as it is a hassle to switch jobs. Yes, some companies appear to be above board, but is Google really only paying their software developers 123,000 in Silicon Valley? That seems low for that place. And yes, these salaries look big until you consider where they are. They are pulling salaries from the biggest companies in the most expensive places. Anyone looked into the data yet and see what the consulting sweat shops are paying/claiming? Again, tax the heck out of H1Bs and if there really aren't any engineers available in the US these companies will be happy to pay the penalty. Or better yet, untie H1Bs from a company, make it a 2 year visa, and let them go wherever they want. My guess is the companies will not be so hot on using H1B labor at that point.

    1. Re:The title game by fluffernutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Nobody owes you a job.. but it is the large companies claiming they can't find anyone and thus hiring H1Bs. If their claim is truly justified, then technical people are in short supply and the salary would be increasing. The fact that salary is leveling off means that they must be able to find enough people and thus should not be hiring H1Bs. This is the way the market works, there is no other way. If the market is working fairly for everyone then one of the two alternatives must be the case.

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  3. Re:Lots of highly paid folks by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 4, Informative

    no one ever said 'min wage' for h1b.

    but its minimum in RELATIVE terms because there's no reason to have to pay local salary rates if you don't have to.

    maybe its only 10k less or 5k less but if the workforce is over 50% indian (bay area: its more like 80% or more; wish I was kidding) and a huge percent of those are h1b's, then it adds up.

    there are pay windows or ranges and every h1b salary is on the low end of the range. because, "they can" and they do get away with it.

    the indentured servant is 100% true; once you are onboard, you are abused, overworked and treated like shit. they know that you are stuck there. they brought you in FOR that reason, mostly.

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  4. Re:Lots of highly paid folks by kilfarsnar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Looks like there are a lot of highly skilled and highly paid people in the companies I looked... the opposite of the Slashdot narrative of indentured servants working on minimum wage.

    And then there's this from TFA:

    In Négri’s opinion, that could be a trick to bring in a technically skilled worker at a lower cost: “If the title says software engineer, you pay a lot” to stay in compliance with the H-1B laws that require immigrants to be paid the prevailing wage, he says. “If the title says ‘consultant’, instead of $130,000 you might pay $60,000, the gap is that big.” He pointed to a “technology lead” for Infosys in Sunnyvale, Calif., listed in the database as having a salary of $87,000. “That’s not much for Silicon Valley,” Négri says.

    While it may not be minimum wage or indentured servitude, the point about wage suppression still has merit.

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    "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  5. Where the H-1B wage levels come from by NCoast · · Score: 5, Informative

    I know something about H-1B wages. Follow this federal prevailing wage link (http://www.flcdatacenter.com/OesWizardStart.aspx) and you'll see that they are geographically-specific, and every H-1B wage comes in 4 levels, from entry-level to highly skilled. H-1B employers have to pay at least as much as shown in this federal prevailing wage database and possibly more, if they ordinarily pay people with the same duties in the same location higher than the minimums shown at the above link. BTW, that website can be useful when negotiating your own salary.