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Ted Cruz Wants Minimum H-1B Wage of $110,000 (computerworld.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the mo'-money-mo'-workers dept.

dcblogs writes: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, has morphed from a vocal supporter of the H-1B program to a leading critic of it. He has done so in a new H-1B reform bill (PDF) that sets a minimum wage of $110,000 for H-1B workers. By raising the cost of temporary visa workers, Cruz is hoping to discourage their use. Cruz also wants to eliminate Optional Practical Training Program (OPT). The co-sponsor of this bill, The American Jobs First Act of 2015, is U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who called the OPT program "a backdoor method for replacing American workers."

13 of 543 comments (clear)

  1. I support this. by generic_screenname · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If a company truly needs expertise that just simply cannot be found in the US, then a six figure salary is probably a bargain. Of course, this will never pass. I can dream, though.

    1. Re:I support this. by acoustix · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Instead of dreaming, perhaps you need to look in the mirror and see why corporations would rather employ Joe Unknown from the other side of the world than you. If you have value, you will always get a job over someone trying the H-1B route. Presumably you have limited skills and no experience. And "web" isn't a skill, bad luck.

      Tell that to the former senior engineers at Texas Instruments who were laid off while making $150k while their Indian replacements were paid $50k.

      --
      "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
  2. Re:Ha! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Two people in Congress finally do something that isn't complete self-serving bullshit and the best response slashdot can come up with is a guy making fun of them.

  3. Not always a good idea by grilled-cheese · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Companies are going to do whatever makes the most money. The H1-B program gets them cheap labor in the US. Take away cheap labor, jobs will simply move offshore. If the labor is at least based in the US, those workers are still participating in the US economy.

  4. Dammit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's bad enough that you give my job to some foreign worker, but now your going to pay them twice as much as you were paying me?

    You SUCK!

  5. That he may be by Pollux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't like Ted Cruz. I don't like that he has double-standards. I think he's a hypocrite. And I don't like the platform he has chosen to run on.

    But a good idea is a good idea. And when someone we disagree with shares a good idea, we should unite behind it, rather than censor it because of its source. If we don't, we just divide this nation further.

    1. Re:That he may be by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd say it's a better idea than the current setup - which isn't saying much.

      The H-1B program definitely needs to be massively overhauled. I wouldn't say it needs to be permanent residency, but it certainly needs to entitle the holder to freely move to another job, just like any other worker. The companies also need to be made to pay enough in fees for sponsoring it that they won't be making money - let's say, $100k per year of the visa. There also shouldn't be any rebates if the worker quits, so there's incentive to pay the person well and treat them well. For people who really represent such critical skills that there really is no American available to do the job, that shouldn't be an issue at all.

    2. Re:That he may be by thaylin · · Score: 5, Informative

      Umm you do realize that if H1-Bs are paid more than American workers it would be cheaper to employ Americans, right?

      --
      When you cant win, ad hominem.
  6. Re:Jobs will be offshored by tsotha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they could offshore these jobs they would already have done it.

  7. Re:Close.... by nobuddy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What it is for and how it is used are two very different things.

  8. Minimum Wage Not as Important as Layoff Provision by Maltheus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The bill also calls for:

    that within 730 daysâ"two yearsâ"of âoean employee strike, an employer lockout, layoffs, furloughs, or other types of involuntary employee terminations other than for-cause dismissals,â a company cannot bring aboard any H-1B labor

    I think this is an even bigger deal than the $110k provision.

  9. Re:Another dumbfuck politician. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just get everyone to agree on the precise boundary of what "free trade" is. Can you buy animals? Can you buy water rights? Can you own ideas? Writing? People? What about land? What if I just have enough guns?

    Your notions of property rights might seem obvious to you, but not everyone agrees with you. We, as a community, must come to a consensus. One man's free trade is another man's anarchy, and another's totalitarianism. Can't tell if I'm responding to sarcasm or not.

  10. Re:Ha! by larryjoe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Silicon Valley tech companies that hire H-1Bs won't care much. Very few of their H-1B employees make less than $110K anyway. If the definition of "wage" includes not just base salary but also bonus (actual awarded amount) and stock (actual value, not some notional future value), then it's likely that all of their H-1B employees already meet this requirement.

    Here are the numbers for 2015:

    Rank H1B Visa Sponsor Number of LCA * Average Salary
    1 Infosys 23,816 $76,794
    2 Tata Consultancy Services 14,096 $67,673
    3 Wipro 8,365 $69,936

    I suppose that these workers might have received some significant additional compensation above their salary, but my guess is that the probability is pretty close to zero.

    These top three companies received 46,277 visas, which is over half of the total visa issued. Their average salaries are way below $110k.

    If the speculation that companies above abuse H1B visas by importing low-wage earners is true, then the $110k wage limit would eliminate those visa uses. Of course, that assumes that the changes forces companies to actually pay that much. I can easily think of many ways to circumvent the $110k limit, including paying that amount and deducting most of it back (a la indentured servitude).

    But the key point is that the abuse is predicated on saving money for the ultimate users of the companies' services. Kill off the financial incentive, and the problem completely disappears.

    There is actually a reasonable case for some companies to need something like an H1B. There are actually quite a few US companies that pay decent H1B wages. Instituting a minimum financial threshold allows separation of these arguably more legitimate cases from the arguably job killing cases.

    13 Google 3,059 $125,596
    18 Amazon 1,600 $113,163
    19 Qualcomm Technologies 1,585 $111,816
    21 Apple 1,464 $133,593
    24 Oracle America 1,073 $119,506
    40 Facebook 780 $133,535
    50 Ebay 664 $121,691
    55 Yahoo! 619 $132,752
    59 Paypal 576 $124,616
    63 VM Ware 535 $121,203
    70 Cisco Systems 494 $121,899
    74 Salesforce.Com 483 $124,063
    96 Linkedin 382 $139,634