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University Employees Suspended Due To Guest Worker Scandal

sethstorm writes: By sponsoring employees for use at an IT staffing firm, Wright State University may have broken new ground in guest worker fraud. According to the Dayton Daily News, 19 individuals were sponsored by the university yet ended up working for WebYoga, a firm controlled by (now-suspended) top Wright State officials. They also cited Wright State's exemptions regarding prevailing wage law and H1-b limits as attractive qualities. This has implications not only for the existing workforce, but to students that see the university putting its own staff ahead of them.

5 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Fallout by TrashGod · · Score: 4, Informative
    Dayton Business Journal:
  2. Re: Sounds normal by lucm · · Score: 5, Informative

    Funny how that same reasoning doesn't seem to keep prices to the consumer from rising. And it sure doesn't influence CEO salaries. Why not bring in an H1B, there are plenty of well qualified European CEOs accustomed to working for a fraction of what an American CEO costs.

    I just did a bit of googling on this matter and it is truly amazing. Did you know that Yahoo's CFO (the chief bean counter) made 50% more money last year than the CEO of SAP? Yet SAP make 4x more money than Yahoo.

    Other interesting figures:

    HP: CEO makes 20 millions, (100 billions revenue, 5 billions profit)
    Microsoft: CEO makes 84 millions, (100 billions revenue, 12 billions profit)
    Apple: CEO makes 9 millions, (200 billions revenue, 40 billions profit)
    JP Morgan: CEO makes 20 millions, (50 billions revenue, 22 billions profit)

    and my favorite:
    Twitter: CEO makes 24 millions (1.4 billions revenue, -500 millions profit)

    Meanwhile in Europe:
    SAP: CEO makes 9 millions (18 billions revenu, 4 billions profit)
    VW: CEO makes 23 millions (200 billions revenues, 12 billions profit)

    Well I tried to find more European IT companies but there isn't a lot that are in the multi-billions dollars income bracket.

    --
    lucm, indeed.
  3. Re: Sounds normal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    > Microsoft: CEO makes 84 millions,

    And, as Bill Gates admitted, he was picked for his race. John Thompson only made that much because he is black.

  4. Re: Sounds normal by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Informative
    The civil war was clearly about slavery. All you have to do is read the declaration of secession. Their only complain was about the North not respecting the South with regards to slavery. Here is a typical section of that declaration:

    A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free," and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.

    After the war, southerners felt immoral for supporting slavery, and tried to come up with other reasons for the war, the famous "Lost Cause". Charles A. Beard was not the first of these historians, and he was not the last. Slavery was clearly the central issue.

    Which isn't to say that everyone fought because of slavery: some people had other reasons for fighting. General Lee didn't want the war, he liked the union. When war came, he found his devotion to Virginia was deeper than his devotion to his country (also, he had plenty of family members in Virginia and didn't want to fight against them).

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  5. Re:wow by slew · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why do universities have an exemption for these rules at all?

    There are two H1B rules that people are generally not aware of...

    The first rule is the so-called "cap-exempt" employers. Although most companies have to compete for the limited number of H1b visa granted every year, some institutions are exempt from this cap (e.g., are allowed to hire H1b even if the limit is reached). Most research institutions have been granted cap-exempt status by the government, so H1b applications that go this route have more competition with other H1b's to get those positions. However, typically, these institutions still have to pay prevailing wages to such H1b employees, which brings us to the second little known rule...

    The second rule is known as the "safe-harbor" rule. During the H1b application process a prevaling wage determination must be made. Either the employer can request the Department of Labor to do one, or it can do a self-determined prevailing wage. However, if the DOL does the wage determination, it cannot be latter challenged (aka "safe-harbor"). Competitive companies often can't wait the 6-8 weeks it takes to get a number from the DOL so they often are margin up pay to make sure they can survive a challenge. Research institutions generally go the DOL certification route (because they are under less competitive pressure), and also often game the system to get a low prevailing wage (e.g., university staff can be paid similar to post-docs and would be comparable in this system even though that's generally on the low-side of prevailing wage). Also once a prevailing wage determination is made by the DOL, it can be applied to any number of applicants that have the same job description w/o resubmitting to the DOL with every applicant.

    That being said, it isn't just universities that exempt, but they are in a unique position to take advantage of both rules. They tend to be cap-exempt and they are hiring entry level folks with a reusable safe-harbor low-balled prevailing wage determination.