Study Questions H-1B Policies 361
An anonymous reader writes "One of the arguments for continuing and even expanding the H1-B visa program (pdf) is that it enables highly-skilled immigrants to work in the U.S. and grow the U.S. economy. Counterarguments state that the H1-B visa program does not bring in the 'best and brightest' and is used to drive down wages, particularly in the STEM fields. This Bloomberg article, discussing pending H1-B legislation, quotes some of the salaries of current workers in the U.S. on H1-B visas: $4,800/month and $5,500/month which work out to $57,600/year and $66,000/year; only slightly higher than the average entry-level salaries of newly-graduated engineering or computer science majors."
Re:H1B or Outsourcing, choose one. (Score:5, Informative)
Last time there was a major backlash against H1Bs, it resulted in outsourcing.
When was this alleged major backlash? The quota hasn't dropped below 65k/yr in what, at least 20 years?
Second, you're falling for the "if you don't let us have more H-1B's we'll just outsource more" threat. It's bull. No matter how little they pay H-1B's, they're still way more expensive than people working in the 3rd world. Hence, anything that can be outsourced already has been or will be. The H-1B's are for the jobs that they can't outsource.
Re:It is OBVIOUSLY cost reduction (Score:5, Informative)
Nope. Price cannot be used legally as a hiring decision for H1Bs.
It has to be due to a shortage of workers, meaning you simply can't get them at any price. You can use refusal of offers at whatever wage as evidence of shortage, but that is it. You cannot hire an H1B simply because he agrees to work for less than the prevailing wage, and it is illegal to pay him less than the prevailing wage.
That being said, all the major contracting companies that use H1Bs do this. They are all breaking federal law and as such should have the DOJ after them.
That's not what "market rates" means (Score:5, Informative)
The only objective evidence I have is that I have never met someone who is involved with hiring developers who has said how easy it is to find quality talent at market rates.
Then they aren't actually offering "market rates". The definition of market rate is "The term “market rate” refers to the level of compensation an organization must provide to enable it to effectively compete against other organizations in attracting and retaining qualified employees. "
http://www.da.ks.gov/newpayplans/whatmarket.pdf [ks.gov]