People have talked about not hiring Americans wanting higher than PWD and that they hired non-Americans for (IMO artificially low) PWD. If you pay everyone PWD than of course they’re not being paid less than everyone else but that doesn’t mean that that very act keeps wages low for everyone since you can always hire someone for PWD.
And some of those people will come in at higher wages. And I wonder why, until recently, IT was considered such a good field to be in if the average wage had been pulled down so much.
I think we’re saying the same thing. I mean, I’m all for using H-1B visas to hire those guys with like 25 years of laser optics fabrication experience in university labs somewhere.
But I’m not at all convinced the IT job market is so tight that there’s any need for a 27 year old IIT computer science graduate with 3 years of experience to get hired on a H-1B in the US. There are lots of entry level people those companies could train up, there are lots of 3 year experience local degreed people, and so forth. It’s just that the IIT guy might be willing to work for considerably less than the guy from Appalachian State (or wherever).
Early in my career I worked with lots of Indian and Chinese immigrants with varying status of being in the country (some visas, some green cards, some fully naturalized.) I was never really convinced that at least for the ones on visas that it wasn’t that the company couldn’t get American scientists and more that they were trying to get cheap labor they could overwork as salary exempt.
Here is a video on the ways companies abuse the H-1B system. No new news - many use it to pay for cheaper labor than Americans.
I’m seeing two things wrong with the video so far. He starts by saying the H-1B is specifically designed for employers who cannot reasonably find authorized workers to fill a position. This is false. There is no requirement* for an employer to demonstrate they attempted to find someone who was authorized to work before they sponsor a foreign worker for the position. You do not reach that point until you’re applying for PERM residence. I’m harping on this because he goes on to say aggressive recruiters are “interviewing” people and ghosting them just so they can demonstrate they couldn’t find anyone already authorized to work, necessitating they sponsor someone. This is just flat out false because you don’t have to demonstrate you made a good faith effort to find someone.
(*It might be a requirement for an employer who is known to abuse the H-1B process in the past. The government will make it harder for you to sponsor workers.)
He goes on to say the company he worked for hired foreign tech workers at 50% the going rate of American workers. Given how the prevailing wage determination works, I need a citation beyond his word. The prevailing wage is the average for what employees in that particular geographic location with similar jobs, experience, and education are making. If the average Data Scientist in Denver makes $80,000, the company can’t pay their foreign worker less than that. While I do think bringing in foreign workers depresses wages, I do not think they’re being paid 50% of what their American counterparts would be making.
I do agree the H-1B system is abused by large companies. I’ve found it awfully suspicious that the bulk of H-1B employees at my company are fairly concentrated. Not just in IT of course, my in a particular area of IT. I have a manager who is acting a conduit between staffing agencies and my employer to bring in those contractors as full time employees. I’d like to see the system revised so we can continue to attract talented workers to the United States, helping us keep our economic/technological lead, to help businesses meet their staffing needs, and to protect American workers.
Agreed, this appears to be an attempt to address that abuse. I think this could make a significant positve impact on those working in the IT industry in the US.
This appears to be a ham-fisted attempt to control and punish companies that don’t bend the knee to King Trump. If Republicans really wanted to address loopholes with the visa process then Congress could always draft legislation requiring employers to actually look for an American worker before allowing them to hire a foreign worker. But then that would require Congress to actually govern and they’ve ceded that responsibility to his Royal Highness.
The funny thing is the “abuse of visa holders by their own employers” issue can be mitigated by making the requirements to keep your visa less stringent. I have no doubt that companies abuse people on H1Bs because as it stands, a visa holder losing their job would have 2 months to find anything or be forced to leave the country. If this was lengthened, or it was easier to jump from a work visa into a longer term visa with fewer requirements, people who held those visas would be in a more similar bargaining position to citizens and the potential for this divide and conquer strategy of slavedriving the visa holders and expecting the citizens to compete with them would be less viable.
I don’t disagree about the ham-fistedness of it. My comment was more focused on Trump’s intent.
The H-1B visas are a big issue in the IT sector. I’m not sure it will impact me, but if it sticks around it probably will eventually make wages go up for my son, who somehow also ended up in the IT field.
If it were an across the board fee, without exemptions for people that the Cheeto-pedo happens to like today, I could possibly buy that argument. For the roles I was trying to fill, the salary was sufficient enough that $100K would not be too much of a burden. For the abusers of the system it throws a wrench in the works, but since exceptions can be bought, it’s just another grift.
It’s dangerous to assume everything Trump does is corrupt and ignore that some if it is also racist.
Trump’s intent is to shake down American companies. If a company gains his favor he’ll waive the visa fee. Those who earn Trump’s ire will find themselves paying the full fee for any employee they sponsor. There is nothing about Trump’s character indicating any genuine desire to help Americans.
Not true. The employer must make “reasonable efforts” to advertise the availability of the position the H1B candidate is being proffered. The employer must file the job position availability in a “prominent” place on the premises where the H1B candidate is expected to work. IIRC, the requirement is for the position to be advertised for 8 weeks, and if there are no suitable candidates, the LCA may progress.
Sure, you can always make the argument that this rule is also flouted in some way. There’s no rule, really, that cannot be broken or circumvented. But yes, the requirement is there.
If you give me a “prevailing wage” range, and tell me I can hire someone willing to get paid in that range, why wouldn’t I hire someone at the “bottom end of that range” instead of the top end, if they seem equally equipped to do that job? Any HR would do that in a heartbeat. There’s no pro-H1B bias here. And who says they are not offered raises for years? I don’t know about dodgy consultancies, but reputable employers treat employees fairly and pay them well.
Besides, the cost of living is incredibly low in countries like India. A $15,000/year take-home salary is a livable wage even in large metropolitan cities. I can assure you H1B are paid far more than that.
With just $4000-ish in per-capita income (vs $56000-ish in the US), India’s PPP GDP is half that of the US, demonstrating just how much money can buy in India vs the US.
You’re talking about the LCA notice which must be placed in two conspicuous places at the worksite for a period of ten days within 30 days prior to it being posted. Here’s the thing, it’s called an LCA notice not a job position available notice. It’s entire purpose is to inform employees of the company’s intent to fill that position with a foreign worker. By the time the LCA has been posted, we have already interviewed candidates, a job offer has been made, and the candidate has accepted.
You want to know what’s really silly? We’d often hire contractors into full time employee positions, and if the job was remote we’d have them post the LCA at home since it was a worksite. I’d post one in the breakroom of one of our buildings and they’d post it in their home office. We did this on the advice of counsel and not once did the USCIS balk at it. They didn’t balk because the purpose of the LCA is not to advertise an available position.
India is actually affordable as a travel destination for us in “shithole countries”.
Aside from the huge wealth of culture and history, I’d move there in a heartbeat just for the quality of living I could have at USD4000 a month. I’d be a king (or perhaps a rajah)
Yes, you are correct, my bad. It’s hilarious that someone would post the LCA notice in their home office for the cat to tear up!