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How Outsourcing Companies Are Gaming the H-1B Visa System (nytimes.com)
New submitter shakah writes: The NY Times has a straightforward summary of how the H-1B Visa system is being gamed by companies inside and outside of the United States. Particularly interesting for me was their clarification on the argument that "VISA holders have to make prevailing wages, so they won't depress wages." Quoting: "Under federal rules, employers like TCS, Infosys and Wipro that have large numbers of H-1B workers in the United States are required to declare that they will not displace American workers. But the companies are exempt from that requirement if the H-1B workers are paid at least $60,000 a year. H-1B workers at outsourcing firms often receive wages at or slightly above $60,000, below what skilled American technology professionals tend to earn, so those firms can offer services to American companies at a lower cost, undercutting American workers."
How about H1-B Visa holders get paid 110% of the prevailing wage so that only the companies who seriously need a specialist and legitimately can't find any local talent will hire them. Also, give H1-B holders a ten year window to work in the U.S. that isn't dependent on staying with a single employer. If someone else hires away your H1-B employee, that's your company's problem.
In the farming, I have heard from people who live in those areas, the farm owners won't even hire an American, as they can demand minimum wage, but an illegal will work for dollars a day and can't complain.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
How about a flat $50K/year tax payable straight to the gov't? Think of that as a tariff or duty. This would have several advantages:
- Simple & stupid, can't game a flat fee
- That kind of revenue wold keep the gov't interested in enforcing the program
- Makes the process of hiring offshore much more expensive. Remember, the idea is that hiring offshore is supposed to be a *last* resort, so $50K wouldn't deter someone who truly needed a particular skill.
- Makes it impractical to hire offshore lower-level employees, the kind that we already have plenty of and who are blatantly being replaced with foreigners just to save money.
The H1B program is broken in it's current form. It needs to be scrapped. Like other countries, e.g., Germany, the guest work visa program needs to be tightly monitored. No company should be allowed to flood the application process. No outsourcing or contractor companies should be allowed to apply, period. The reality is there is not shortage of STEM applicants. Plenty of qualified people. If you want to hire people from 3rd world countries, thereby undercutting labor rates, then locate your business there. You'll do more to help that country raise their standard of living by doing that. Not that you were truly interested in doing that.
If there really were a shortage of tech workers, which I don't believe for a moment, the H1-B program is still about indentured servants. They should speed up/open up proper permanent residencies for these people so they come in with all the same rights and expectations of the Americans they are currently displacing. Holding them hostage to one company, training them to work well with Americans and then sending them home to lead off-shored teams is so bad for American workers that it's ridiculous.
The job that they want an H1B for must be presented to the government and a $10k fee paid to the government to cover expenses. The government will interview qualified candidates and if the company does not take one of them, they do not get an H1B either. If no qualified candidates are found, the salary is raised until a qualified candidate is found, up to a maximum of 3 standard deviations from the average salary for the position. If there are still no qualified candidates, then you can have an H1b.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.