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New Book Sold Out Offers a Look At the H-1B Debate
theodp writes: The New York Post has published an excerpt from
Sold Out: How High-Tech Billionaires and Bipartisan Beltway Crapweasels Are Screwing America's Best and Brightest Workers, a new book on the H-1B debate from conservative syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin and programmer-turned-attorney John Miano. "Sold Out," notes a Computerworld review, "clearly has a point a view about the program (crapweasels, for instance), but it backs up its assertions and gives H-1B supporters a high threshold to cross. A serious argument in defense of the visa program requires explaining how America gains when a U.S. worker is replaced by a foreign visa holder hired to do the exact same job. If you are going to justify the H-1B program, then you have to defend firms that force their employees (no severance otherwise) to train their replacements. That may be the point here. This book lays bare the replacement process, the broad use of the H-1B visa by the IT offshore outsourcing industry, and the lobbying effort in Washington to minimalize the visa's use in displacing U.S. workers." With anecdotes like "how Microsoft wined and dined the Bush administration to expand the foreign worker supply through administrative fiat to circumvent public disclosure and congressional debate," the book seeks out a broader audience than just those already familiar with the H-1B issue.
We were paying competitive market rates, with excellent benefits, but, I did not have much luck hiring any good candidates in the Silicon Valley.
How did you come up with that rate?
I ask because a local company was offering a "competitive market rate" with "excellent benefits" and I laughed at them. Seems the system they were using to get competitive rates from was 5 years out of date. So they had the position listed at $85k (Unix/Linux Engineer with 15 years experience) All the local positions I had interviewed for were running $114k to $140k a year.
When you offer "Competitive" rates and do not get a lot of response, i would first check the rates. They may not be as competitive as you think.
As to "excellent benefits" I hear that all the time. Prove it! 9 times out of 10 they are standard benefits with things like 2 weeks vacation, health insurance with a co-pay, and a 401k.
To me "excellent benefits" means
4 weeks or more vacation
Fully paid health, dental, and Vision insurance for self, better would be fully paid for my family.
Fully paid $500,000 life insurance policy.
100% matching of the first 20% of your salary placed into the retirement account.
A fully paid 3 month sabbatical every 3 or 4 years.
Free lunches and/or Free Drinks (Coffee, soda, etc) at work.
etc, etc..
The list goes on and it could be any combination of the above.
I swear the next time I go looking for a new job i am going to negotiate a new benefit. That being a guaranteed severance package equal to 1 years salary with full benefits extended through the severance period. You tell me it is a Full time permanent job, put your money where your mouth is and include a severance package up front. If it is permanent then you will never need to provide it.
When the H1B bill was passed in 1998 it set a reasonable for the time exemption pay of $60,000 pr year. Paying a H1B employee more than $60k let the employer bypass the no displaced worker requirement. At the time you could almost fall out of a tree and get an IT job. Workers were hard to find and H1B filled a need.
Now here we are 17 years later and the $60k threshold has never been adjusted for inflation. What was once a tool to protect US workers is now a low wage target off shore outsourcing company's use to bid low ball IT contracts that displace US workers.
Adjusted for inflation the limit should be closer to $90,000 in 2015 dollars. Congress needs to bring the H1B minimum pay back into balance with today's job market.
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
In many areas of the USA, you can have a nice 2000 sq ft house with large yard and a 30 minute drive to work for both spouses and good schools for your kids. In the SF Bay Area, even if you have a million dollars (or more) to spend on a house, there are very few options places where you can have that.
In other words you WERE NOT offering a competitive wage nationally. You right the H1B program does not require you to go on some national talent search but to simply advertise the position. The point of the law though was to address national worker shortage, that is how it always is/was talked about and sold to the public. So the H1B program is broken! The law does not work as expected and is instead having unintended consequences.
Salaries in any field consider the local cost of living. H1B was not developed to make sure your company have bodies in seats in a particular corner of California. There are always economic efficiencies in certain areas specializing. If you want the efficiency of having all the nations tops tech talent living in silicon valley you have to pay for that or you should have to pay for that! Yes that means paying them enough that they will personal enjoy a better quality of life than they can have for what someone is willing to pay them in Kentucky. That might be a dump truck full of extra dollars.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
We were paying competitive market rates, with excellent benefits
no you weren't. you stated yourself the proof of that: you couldn't hire anyone.
more interested in App or web development for startups
uh ... no. people are interested in a fair wage for their skill set. embedded engineers are in high demand. IMHO it's generally more complex work that requires more experience. you're going to have to pay more for that type of skill set.
basically what you are saying is that your company had a salary they were willing to pay for a embedded systems, but the salary wasn't enough to lure anyone in. so instead of paying more, you decided to import someone that would work for cheaper. you've generally hit the nail on the head here. it isn't that skilled workers don't exist in the US, it's that hiring them would cut into the precious profits of your fortune 500 company. of course, you are going to lobby for and hire cheaper workers. it's what corporations do.