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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.
Now, show of hands ... who the hell is surprised to find out that this whole thing is being misused? Anyone?
The whole bloody point is to drive down wages and replace American workers.
Anybody who tells you otherwise is lying to you.
How anybody could possibly be shocked at this 'revelation' is mind boggling.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Companies don't want that, which is why the H1Bs work the way they do ... because that's what industry wanted.
If they're using an H1B to fill jobs they can't find people for, wages should be going up. Instead they're bringing in cheaper labor to drive down American salaries and displace Americans.
If those people had any ability to fight back or demand more, they just might. This way they're exactly what they're supposed to be .. cheap labor with fewer rights.
Seriously, this didn't happen by accident. It was bought and paid for by industry.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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.
As there is currently more visa applications than available visas, the solution can be very simple. Instead of lottery as it is done now, I would simply give visas to companies that plan to pay the highest salary. That would make companies to raise salaries if they really need applicants. That would also solve problems with definition of "prevailing wage" etc.
No sig today.
Do you really want to incentivize the government to have offshore workers by making them profit centers for the government itself? How is that an incentive to avoid destroying domestic jobs?
You earmark the flat fee to go towards funding the enforcement of the H1B program rules. Any surplus goes to fund worker re-training programs.
This way enforcing the rules of the program is self-funding, and congress can't defund enforcement "because business" and the larger and more popular it is, the more enforcement can be funded.
Plus, you're basically forcing employers who "need" to hire cheap offshore help to also (provided there is a surplus, and at $50k per, there should be) fund worker retraining so the people needed to do the job can be found at home.
Just what is the end game to gutting the middle class, anyway?
Is the whole goal here just to have like 3 people who control 99.99999% of the wealth?
Surely once the the middle class is denuded, they'll start going for the "HENRYs" (high earners, not rich yet) and find a way to strip them of their earning potential and wealth, too.
At least in ancient Rome the emperors would stage feasts, festivals and games.