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New Data On H-1B Visas Prove That IT Outsourcers Hire a Lot But Pay Very Little (qz.com)
New submitter FerociousFerret shares a report from Quartz: Hard numbers have been released by the U.S. government agency that screens visas for high-skilled foreign workers, and they are not pretty. Data made available by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for the first time show that the widely made complaint about the visa program is true: a small number of IT outsourcing companies get a disproportionately high number of H-1B visas and pay below-average wages to their workers. The new data also gives a more accurate picture of salaries of H-1B workers by employer. The top IT outsourcing companies on average paid much lower salaries to their workers. The wage divide is largely a result of different education requirements of H-1B positions. H-1B visas are issued to workers with specialized skills which generally requires a Bachelor's degree or higher. More than 98% of approved H-1B visa positions were awarded to workers with either a Bachelor's or a Master's degree in fiscal year 2016. A closer look at the educations held by H-1B workers at companies like Google, Amazon and Intel -- places with in-house tech staffs -- show that more than 60% had Masters degrees. For most IT outsourcing companies, the majority of H-1B visa holders only had a Bachelor's.
beauty is in the eye of the employer
This is news? Companies wouldn't bother to even do H-1B visas unless they paid less than homegrown employees.
That corporations would do the most economically sensible thing, given the conditions at hand.
In other words: Duh. Now that we have the evidence, can we PLEASE do something about this?
I have serious problems with a visa that's designed for the worker to have to go home again later (I know that a fair number of H1B holders do convert to green card holders, but that's deliberately NOT the point of an H1B).
H1B should be a fairly rare thing - if the US is so short of workers that you have to go oversees, then we should be giving out green cards and encouraging citizenship, not paying crap wages, depressing pay scales for US workers, and then sending them home.
Take the number of H1B visas issued, and put that number into the green card program instead. I want people who are going to stay and be my neighbor, not temps from oversees!
A thousand pounds of wood moving at 300 feet per minute. Don't get in the way.
The IT outsourcing companies make a ton of other money in the process.
From a percentage of the pay their H-1B contracts receive, to the flop houses they store their programmers in while they're not at work, it's all pure profit.
Data here
Is it any wonder that middle class wages have stagnated and young workers are under employed?
And some people still can't figure out why Hillary lost....
1. Naively capping H-1Bs at 1,000 per organization would only result in more organizations. The outsourcers would simply lean on shell companies. Depending on the elasticities, workers would get paid even less in order to fund the extra overhead. That won't work.
2. There is an easy fix, actually: set minimum H-1B salaries to $10,000 per month (2017 dollars, inflation indexed) nationwide, up to $2,000/month more (2017 dollars) in high cost of living areas (e.g. Silicon Valley), plus require that the employer post a 12 month bond. That'll have zero impact on Apple and several other legitimate H-1B employers. Closely monitor compliance (e.g. compare to tax records), deport any employee paying kickbacks, throw anybody accepting kickbacks in prison, and keep the bond if there are any rule violations.
3. A variation on #2 is to hold monthly or quarterly H-1B auctions. The bid price is the employee's salary, and the highest salaries win, subject to a $10,000/month (2017 dollars) floor.
Options #2 and #3 would help boost government revenues since high salaries (for both the H-1Bs and resident workers) mean higher tax payments.
If you were earning $500/mo in the States, you would NOT have a house of your own and plenty of food. You would be living in a cardboard box under a bridge and eating out of dumpsters. Get real, broham.
There are two issues with the process. The H1B is the only visa that allows for dual purpose/intent - temporary worker while allowing for the person to have the intent to work permanently in the United States. It is often used while a company is sponsoring the individual for a green card. H1B is a maximum of 2 3yr visas, and sponsoring for a green card typically takes almost 6 years to process. During this time a worker cannot change employers or they have to start over on the green card application -- basically turning them into indentured servants with little or no ability to negotiate on pay.
The H1B tech worker program should be changed into a temporary work permit given to the employee (not the employer) while the green card application is underway. The green card application once started should have the ability to "transfer sponsors". H1B visas should require a minimum salary at or above the prevailing wage. Data on salaries of local hires and H1Bs should be reported annually, and if a company is abusing the visa then they should be banned from sponsoring them for a period of 5 years.
the maximum number of H1-B visas was awarded this year as always. There's no sign of a drop for next year either. Putting a few hoops up doesn't change anything. The program needs to end.
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My father always told me "don't get good at something you don't like to do" --- years later I'd learn that it was true, and B) don't ever get good at something that isn't valued (or can be automated).
The low wages for these IT jobs is simply the Value That Companies Put on the Work. They need a semi-skilled laborer to write 'em some dumb code. Or push buttons for a manual testing effort. The cost of "now" vs "automate it" -- usually "now" wins. Regardless of how bad you may feel about somebody doing the same job for less -- realize this -- it's all the employer is willing to pay to get the job done.
Don't get good at those jobs.