How Outsourcing Companies Are Gaming the H-1B Visa System (nytimes.com) 284
New submitter shakah writes: The NY Times has a straightforward summary of how the H-1B Visa system is being gamed by companies inside and outside of the United States. Particularly interesting for me was their clarification on the argument that "VISA holders have to make prevailing wages, so they won't depress wages." Quoting: "Under federal rules, employers like TCS, Infosys and Wipro that have large numbers of H-1B workers in the United States are required to declare that they will not displace American workers. But the companies are exempt from that requirement if the H-1B workers are paid at least $60,000 a year. H-1B workers at outsourcing firms often receive wages at or slightly above $60,000, below what skilled American technology professionals tend to earn, so those firms can offer services to American companies at a lower cost, undercutting American workers."
A better idea (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:A better idea (Score:5, Insightful)
I like that idea.
The corporations would try to game it by using job titles that don't fit the job. Like "junior apprentice programmer" requiring 20 years of experience.
So we need a way to correctly reflect either the job or the skills. We could base it upon the median salaries of the people with the same certifications living within 100 miles. But not everyone has certifications.
Any better ideas?
Re:A better idea (Score:5, Interesting)
Pretty much plan isn't going to work if you allow for blatant rule-breaking. Make it so if you have a "junior apprentice programmer" that has 20 years of experience and is running the project, the company gets fined and the hiring manager risks jail time. Have random audits to confirm people are following the rules. Enforce those rules.
Besides, if someone is applying for an H-1B visa for a "junior apprentice programmer" on the basis that they need a specialist that isn't available in the US population, that application should be rejected on it's face.
Re:A better idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Have random audits to confirm people are following the rules. Enforce those rules.
Sure, but that requires *more* government -- to enforce those rules and punishments -- and, as we all know, that would be bad and a "job killer", unlike easy access to cheap, foreign H-1B workers ... oh, wait.
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Isn't that really the point? Add in so many rules and regulations so that eventually the government can change the management (and ownership) of a company at any time for any number of reasons. Communism, fascism, medieval feudal system, they are basically all the same under different names and the basically all mean that everybody works for the government and buys everything from the government.
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Sure, but that requires *more* government --
The auditing would probably get contracted out to some congresscritters cousin (at twice the price and a third the quality of government employees), who would then hire a bunch of H-1Bs to do the auditing.
Audit results would be heavily influenced by A) is the company in said congresscritters (or an ally) district, and B) is the company using the same outsourcing company as the auditor.
I find that a very interesting in the sense that a more 'stable' (in the sense of ruling policitical parties) seems to promote corruption.
The more I've contemplated the problem, the more I think proportional voting is better than the FPTP that the US uses. Too much stability seems to create the exact same problems that monarchies do.
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You want to make the USA like Belgium and Italy?
Re:A better idea (Score:5, Interesting)
Pretty much plan isn't going to work if you allow for blatant rule-breaking. Make it so if you have a "junior apprentice programmer" that has 20 years of experience and is running the project, the company gets fined and the hiring manager risks jail time. Have random audits to confirm people are following the rules. Enforce those rules.
And watch the auditors start buying expensive boats and cars, and taking long vacations in exotic resorts, because then the game is to get your competitor in trouble with accusations of wrongdoing, true or not.
There is no rule that can't be gamed. The only benefit to changing the rules is that it forces the game players to learn the new rules. Sometimes, it might even change the winners. But it'll still be gamed, and still to the advantage of those at the top.
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Re:A better idea (Score:4, Interesting)
The solution to that is to have the worker own the visa, not the employer.
If they have 20 years' genuine experience and you try to pay them like a junior they'll soon sling their hook and fuck off somewhere else if the option's open. And all power to their elbow.
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H1B corporate code for training is expensive and they don't want to pay for it. So the US government screws students with massive rip off loans for higher education training, then screw them over by stealing the training paid for by other countries who do not rip off the higher education students with loans and thus be a lot cheaper. Basically US corporations having their caking and eating but simply keeping their cake and stealing everyone else's to eat.
Can not find trained citizens - THEN FUCKING TRAIN
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The simple answer -- have a specific list of job titles and matching skills requirements that are determined to be in short supply. This list gets reviewed annually. Any unemployed IT worker could register their skills, and would get first crack at new positions when an H1B worker is requested.
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Like anyone cares about breaking labor rules. The watchdogs (as many on here fondly point out) are an aging dinosaur.
There are plenty of cases of industrial accidents with thousands of labor board complaints that no-one did anything about, and during a conservative regime its even worse.
Re:A better idea, just needs better implemenation (Score:5, Interesting)
How about a flat $50K/year tax payable straight to the gov't? Think of that as a tariff or duty. This would have several advantages:
- Simple & stupid, can't game a flat fee
- That kind of revenue wold keep the gov't interested in enforcing the program
- Makes the process of hiring offshore much more expensive. Remember, the idea is that hiring offshore is supposed to be a *last* resort, so $50K wouldn't deter someone who truly needed a particular skill.
- Makes it impractical to hire offshore lower-level employees, the kind that we already have plenty of and who are blatantly being replaced with foreigners just to save money.
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Remember, the idea is that hiring offshore is supposed to be a *last* resort
Let's not waste our time with this. It's clearly not true or enforced.
Re:A better idea, just needs better implemenation (Score:4, Insightful)
Flat fee issue:
Do you really want to incentivize the government to have offshore workers by making them profit centers for the government itself? How is that an incentive to avoid destroying domestic jobs?
I'd think more like saying "H1B hires cost 3x the prevail wage for a job as determined by industry". Anyone not willing to pay up triple the cost can hire back the same folks they are firing now to save a buck. Anyone claiming this is not about companies saving a buck is being disingenuous. If there is truly not a single domestic worker able to fill the role, then paying extra for it should not be a problem. Looking at employment rates, and layoff/offshoring announcements I think these problems would fix itself pretty quickly given the right financial incentive.
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Because you can lie about the prevailing wage.
You can't fudge your way around a flat fee.
Re:A better idea, just needs better implemenation (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you really want to incentivize the government to have offshore workers by making them profit centers for the government itself? How is that an incentive to avoid destroying domestic jobs?
You earmark the flat fee to go towards funding the enforcement of the H1B program rules. Any surplus goes to fund worker re-training programs.
This way enforcing the rules of the program is self-funding, and congress can't defund enforcement "because business" and the larger and more popular it is, the more enforcement can be funded.
Plus, you're basically forcing employers who "need" to hire cheap offshore help to also (provided there is a surplus, and at $50k per, there should be) fund worker retraining so the people needed to do the job can be found at home.
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Or both would hate it. Unqualified people depressing wages for all. If nothing else, it would discourage the
Re:A better idea (Score:4, Insightful)
How about H1-B Visa holders get paid 110% of the prevailing wage
The corporations would try to game it by using job titles that don't fit the job. Like "junior apprentice programmer" requiring 20 years of experience.
Just enforce the rules. The IRS can take the time to determine if a company is abusing tax law during an audit, so a government agency should be able to determine in a company is gaming the H1-B program. I think most people would be willing to accept some small abuses would happen, as long as blatant abuses are prosecuted.
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I think just removing the requirement that a H1B visa is tied to a specific job would go a long way towards solving the issue and would, in effect, be self-regulating. If an employee is underpaid or mistreated he can vote with his feet -- unless of course the company can keep him on a leash via H1B visa. Remove the leash and situation self-corrects. Suddenly, it's no longer cheaper to hire H1B workers.
I also like the idea of a H1B tariff, or making the cost of the visa substantial, say 10% of the prevailing
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Immigration grants work visas based on projected requirements. People with those skills apply for a visa and get pre approval which allows them to apply for jobs and enter for interviews. Once an offer is made then if conditions are met (market wage, not a fly-by-night company, guarantee of minimum term, more intensive background checks, etc) then the work visa is granted. Allow the person a certain amount of time to find another job if they lose theirs or to transfer easily as long as it's in the same
Re:A better idea (Score:5, Interesting)
The real prevailing wage is hard to check. Companies will just not mention some of the special skills of that person and then they can hire a very skilled person for more than 110% "prevailing wage", when they are really paying 80% prevailing wage. Or they are paying 110% prevailing wage but expecting 200% working hours.
I think a much simpler solution would be to change the random lottery to a list that is ordered by wage and give the H1B only to people on the top of that list. That would make it hard to abuse H1Bs to drive down wages and give priority to the people that would likely really contribute the US economy. It could also potentially drive up wages for us workers: If companies are required to offer 200k per year to a foreigner with a certain skillset to guarantee him a H1B, then us workers with the same skillset will also notice what their skills are worth and will demand higher wages. And if the lowest wage that still qualified for a H1B is too low, then you just reduce the number of H1Bs.
Re:A better idea (Score:5, Interesting)
What we actually need is a comprehensive list of companies that have done this (think Disney, etc), to facilitate boycotting those companies.
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Wasn't that was Disney did? Hire Infosys, not H1-B directly?
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We all know that this won't change
That's what happens when you don't have a union or professional association who can lobby on your behalf. Sometimes the smartest people are the biggest idiots.
Re:A better idea (Score:5, Interesting)
It wouldn't exactly be a visa at that point so much as fungible work authorization token, but I don't think that would be the end of the world. Markets are very good at solving these sorts of problems.
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Yes. Determining "market rate" for a worker a company desperately wants to underpay is always the tricky part. Just let companies buy and sell the visas and you'll get an actual market rate right there for you in black and white. No need to write a "market rate" regulation, and then a bunch of additional regulations for how to determine market rate, and then a bunch of additional regulations to put patches around the last set of regulations once companies figure out how to game your
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I already answered to someone's post already. What you said is actually a misconception of H1-B visa that is very common for those who do not really know much about the visa. A H1-B holder CAN change his/her employer at any time while holding a visa without the need to let the current employer know. The only requirement is the new employer must file for a petition as if it is a new application but with certain exceptions -- http://www.immihelp.com/visas/... [immihelp.com]
Also, auctioning the visa will create another iss
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Maybe change it so the H-1B visas are awarded based on annual salary?
In other words, issue the visas for the jobs that will pay the most. My guess is a transparent market like that would quickly get rid of wage disparities (though how to combat the lobbying effort+money that supports the status quo is the next obvious question).
Re:A better idea (Score:4, Insightful)
... to work in the U.S. that isn't dependent on staying with a single employer. If someone else hires away your H1-B employee, that's your company's problem.
This part is a misinformation. Currently, this is already included in H1-B visa deal. A person who is holding H1-B visa CAN change employer; however, the new employer must file for another H1-B petition (or transfer) as if it is a new petition except the remaining visa time may stay the same or get extended -- http://www.immihelp.com/visas/... [immihelp.com]
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That wouldn't solve the problem here.
The problem is not that there isn't a law about prevailing wage - there is. The problem is that the prevailing wage of generic IT consultants is low, while the prevailing wage of highly skilled software engineering specialists is high. The outsourcing companies are hiring moderately skilled software engineering specialists, into generic IT consulting roles at generic IT consulting prevailing wages. They are then selling services to other companies and displacing the h
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110%? No, still room to somehow game the "work study" that determines the salary. I say 150% or more, and the wage doesn't get paid from the employer to the H1-B, it goes through a government agency who collects that 150% and then passes the actual salary along, then takes the other chunk and puts it into a worker training program targeted at the shortage. We've seen in Canada ways that the Temporary Foreign Worker program can be abused in a similar fashion, and one of the better tricks was employers arr
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how about auctioning the visas instead of giving them out in a lottery. those companies that really need the visas can bid the price up and those companies that are simply looking for cheap, imported labor will find that they are ending up paying the prevailing wage anyway.
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I'm okay with this, but I would also say get rid of H1B altogether and give them green cards. College Educated technically inclined immigrants are EXACTLY the sort we should be encouraging to come, live, and stay in the US.
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How about H1-B Visa holders get paid 110% of the prevailing wage so that only the companies who seriously need a specialist and legitimately can't find any local talent will hire them. Also, give H1-B holders a ten year window to work in the U.S. that isn't dependent on staying with a single employer. If someone else hires away your H1-B employee, that's your company's problem.
Just kill the H1-B program. Companies will either pay market rate or if there's truly a shortage, which in most cases there isn't or train up their existing employees (which they don't like to do now) or even support training programs in schools to provide a future educated resource pool.
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And this is different from indentured servitude how?
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They don't have a big picture of the economy. They only know that they need to drop their prices, which means dropping expenses. Manpower is a big expense, so they try and economize on that. Nothing rewards them for caring about that big picture.
You'd think the government would have a solution for big picture issues, but they're the ones allowing this to happen. Just like they're allowing the immigration crisis to occur. You want to get rid of illegal aliens? Investigate and prosecute the businesses t
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Where do you work in an industry that manpower is a huge expense? I paid staff very well and they cost me less than it cost to keep the copy room going. The copy room was like 12k/month with supplies. Most engineers and programmers started at 120k depending on experience. Granted, we did a lot of printing, but still. Hell, power and AC for the server room was damned expensive. Software licensing was pretty rough. I think Sun made more from us than anyone else did, at least for a while. (Scaling out was cost
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Why do you think $120k is NOT a huge expense, at least relatively? The cost of running all of our servers in production, development and demo is less than the amount of money spent per year on my team, even forgetting about their benefits.
Of course, if you're using Sun equipment, and possibly things like Oracle, I guess I'm starting to understand. I'm very sorry you have to deal with that. I used to work at places like that.
I was quoted $150,000 for a license of Oracle once. I nearly laughed myself to d
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My company, sold now, did traffic modeling. We did allow Oracle a shot at our database but, well, after three months and absolutely zero success they insisted we owed them money and took us to court.
As for labor? Pfft... I don't pay that. You paid that. I bill for that, it's in the contract. The municipality has a choice to sign or not. I need quality employees who will do quality work because failure has huge penalties. So, employees get paid (albeit indirectly) by the contract. Things like other assets ar
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From the other business owners that I know, I'm involved in a few now, they cite similar things. One owns a small computer repair shop with a few employees. Another, has maybe 500 employees in a bunch of fast food franchises, and the another owns a web hosting company - leases a few good sized cages in a couple of data centers in the US. All of them cite the same things. We talk about this extensively. I chose those few to mention specifically because their disparate. I know law firm owners, a guy who has a
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Or go with supply and demand: Worker must be paid at least as much as the highest paid employee of the whole company (if there is such a shortage, then the worker's skills are obviously more valuable than the CEO's).
Ummmm ... DUH? (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, show of hands ... who the hell is surprised to find out that this whole thing is being misused? Anyone?
The whole bloody point is to drive down wages and replace American workers.
Anybody who tells you otherwise is lying to you.
How anybody could possibly be shocked at this 'revelation' is mind boggling.
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Agreed that H1-B is a gift to employers, but I'd take it a step further:
Even if the Zuckerberg/Obama H1-B rhetoric were true, you have a politicized fed program attempting to address a market need. Markets react nearly instantly, feds react (depending on who controls House/Sen/Prez) in 2-6 years. So you have things like the antiquated $60K exemption (probably made more sense way back when rule was enacted). A "good" H1-B policy may be impossible given the way it is currently managed.
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What are you, some kind of communist?
Workers are to be cast aside as soon as they become inconvenient or expensive. If you're not evicting little old ladies and shooting puppies, you're not trying hard enough.
How do you expect to maximize shareholder value (and therefore executive bonuses) if you have to act like humans?
America has reached the point where "asshole capitalism" is the expected norm, and
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The sad thing is that there are plenty of unemployed American programmers and IT workers willing to work for less than the prevailing wage, many of them as equally incompetent as the immigrants.
In the old days they would hire some kid out of high school and TRAIN HIM. What the hell happened to that?
THe Job creators are starving the monster, as they put it.
And the reason they don't hire people to train is that accountants have sucked up 100 percent of the overhead. Company has to have someone keeping track of the 500 dollars worth of pencils a year, so they hire a 100K accountant to perform that vital task.
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In the old days they would hire some kid out of high school and TRAIN HIM. What the hell happened to that?
Are you under the impression that IT is like operating a drill press on an assembly line or something? If so, no wonder you're scared of being outsourced.
Are you under the impression that IT springs out of the ocean fully formed like Venus, and is ready to tackle all problems with no experience whatsoever?
Outsourcing companies need to get out! (Score:3)
If U.S. companies don't want to hire U.S. workers, then these companies need to stop pretending, and just get the fuck out of the U.S altogether.
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If U.S. companies don't want to hire U.S. workers, then these companies need to stop pretending, and just get the fuck out of the U.S altogether.
They are, but only to avoid paying taxes in the US. Of course they're happy to keep a subsidiary or two in the US that does the selling while the profits are shoveled out of the country.
Tax Inversion:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
H1-B and outsourcing where I work. (Score:2)
I work for a large bank that rhymes with face. I have watched the area I work in go from 90% american workers to 90% H1-B workers. And that wouldn't be so bad, except on top of that, they are offshoring like crazy as well, and those guys on the other side of the planet do not do anything.
Tickets come in during the night, and they sit on them. Then, when (we) the day shift comes in, they forward us all the tickets, meaning we start every day with a flood of work. What is the point of paying the offshore dwee
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Chase feed work is out sourced as well to per job field people and when I used to call in at times the overseas phone people sucked and the tickets got mixed up quite a bit with alot of WTF going on as well.
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Scrap H1B use EB-1 (Score:4, Interesting)
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Simple solution (Score:5, Insightful)
As there is currently more visa applications than available visas, the solution can be very simple. Instead of lottery as it is done now, I would simply give visas to companies that plan to pay the highest salary. That would make companies to raise salaries if they really need applicants. That would also solve problems with definition of "prevailing wage" etc.
Again ... (Score:3)
Is it only me who always reads H-1B Virus?
H1-B program die die die (Score:4, Interesting)
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If there really were a shortage of tech workers, which I don't believe for a moment
I interview at least one person per week for a well known, desirable company. In the last year, not one has been able to write a half a page of code using two hashtables and rational thought - no gotcha insights required. I say there is in fact a huge shortage. Say, anyone wants to apply?
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people will work for 50k. would keep rents reasonable too. really the six figure sums from jobs that are not done six figure even in northern europe is the problem of the american it hotspots and the reason for outsourcing being so lucrative.
that the h1b has been modelled as debt servitude is just a byproduct.
someone else gaming the system: (Score:2)
> "Mark Merkelbach and his small engineering firm in Seattle. For water projects in China, he needed engineers and landscapers who speak Mandarin"
You can not make knowledge of a foreign language a requirement for an immigrant visa.
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Why not?
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Because 90% of the employers would add knowledge of Hindi as a essential requirement to their job description and thereby make it much easier for the contracting firm to prove no American citizen meets the job requirements.
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Strictly speaking... they should be able to make a language a reason to hire overseas, that is a valuable skill.
However, they should be challenging the company about why they need that for every programmer or admin, and that is the problem. The government is the gatekeeper, but it doesn't even know who to let through the gate. It just listens to the lobbyists tell them all about how there is a "shortage" of workers.
Let the market decide by only giving H1-Bs to the companies willing to pay the most to fill
What is the end game to gutting the middle class? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just what is the end game to gutting the middle class, anyway?
Is the whole goal here just to have like 3 people who control 99.99999% of the wealth?
Surely once the the middle class is denuded, they'll start going for the "HENRYs" (high earners, not rich yet) and find a way to strip them of their earning potential and wealth, too.
At least in ancient Rome the emperors would stage feasts, festivals and games.
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The problem is that you believe it is a conspiracy. It is nothing of the sort. It is a mechanism that is off the rails, and everyone is going along for the ride. Some people get insanely rich off of it, the rest get run over.
However, don't think for a minute that this is a plan. There is no plan, only short term gain and stupid investors.
There are vast inequalities of opportunity in the world, and those can be used to the advantage of those who are willing to break down those barriers. The hope is that
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At least in ancient Rome the emperors would stage feasts, festivals and games.
McDonald's, New Year's Eve, NFL.
The end game of capitalism? The French Revolution. You can only push people so far. There's a point where the laws of society and morality lose their meaning, usually soon after the masses start starving and suffering. At that point it doesn't matter how many guns or gates you have. You're not going to stop an angry mob who thinks they have nothing left to lose and view death as a reprieve from a tormented life.
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Make the job be posted and vetted by the gov (Score:4, Interesting)
Needs also scale with population (Score:2)
These H1Bs are an infusion of folks who are paid $60K, which is higher than average US income, into US population. They are now travelling, eating out in restaurants, sending their kids to daycare and buying computer hardware and software. When otherwise, they would spend their disposable income in India or whatever country they come from.
The only practical downside is restriction on transferring between jobs, which depress wages for both H1B holders and US citizens. Give folks a year to either find another
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Yep, in reality with this and even the farming jobs. The truth is "wages that Americans won't accept".
At competitive wages, you can always find people willing to do the job.
Re:Must be more jobs 'murcans wont do I guess... (Score:4, Interesting)
In the farming, I have heard from people who live in those areas, the farm owners won't even hire an American, as they can demand minimum wage, but an illegal will work for dollars a day and can't complain.
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I don't live in a farmland area. I don't have personal experience to bring to the table. Do you have personal experience that contradicts what my friends have told me? Do you have personal experience that agrees with it? If you don't have any personal experience to draw from, why would you expect more from me?
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FWIW, OP is on the whole correct in what he has "heard" but is a bit unclear on the specifics. Migrant farm workers typically work on a "piece rate" where they get paid a fee per unit of production (bushel, or what have you) rather than a fixed hourly amount. They end up doing fairly well for themselves (often significantly more than minimum wage) but work their asses off to achieve it. Most people raised with a modern urban lifestyle who are hunting for a minimum wage job aren't looking to work that har
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APK, you admitted doing this yourself. How can you condemn someone for doing something you do yourself? Oh yeah - "APK" - that's how.
Wages they can't even be offered. (Score:3)
Yep, in reality with this and even the farming jobs. The truth is "wages that Americans won't accept".
Not just that. They're at wages that can't even be offered. For instance: Some (not all) of the social programs where H1-B workers aren't eligible don't require the employer contribution. So hiring a US worker - even at the same pay - is substantially more expensive.
One of the problems is that, in a very competitive environment where labor costs are large compared to differences in process costs, if ONE
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What about the French dream... what's wrong with pursuing your dreams in France or any other country for that matter?
We changed that to the "Freedom dream." Along with freedom fries, freedom kissing, the freedom braid, freedom toast, renamed the Gene Hackman movie "The Freedom Connection," and freedom onion soup.
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Should 20 companies be able to get 32,000 visas? Shouldn't there be a max of how many visas a single company can apply, like say, 500 max? That's the loophole that allows large outsourcing companies to DOS other H-1B applications.
There's a quota of 85,000 visas/year while there are 233,000 visa applications filed in just 7 days at the start of the process. Even if the rules were made fair, there's only a slim chance the french guy could've gotten an H-1B visa.
Re:Didn't know that prevailing wage loophole exist (Score:5, Insightful)
Companies don't want that, which is why the H1Bs work the way they do ... because that's what industry wanted.
If they're using an H1B to fill jobs they can't find people for, wages should be going up. Instead they're bringing in cheaper labor to drive down American salaries and displace Americans.
If those people had any ability to fight back or demand more, they just might. This way they're exactly what they're supposed to be .. cheap labor with fewer rights.
Seriously, this didn't happen by accident. It was bought and paid for by industry.
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HA
I guess that is why my old Co-Workers at Catholic Health had to train their H1B replacements to do their own jobs before they were laid off. Clearly they couldn't find anyone to do the job other than the people already doing it.
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It's very hard to compete with a much lower standard of living. I know economists like yourself don't need food, clothing or shelter but the rest of us do.
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"Why the hell do I pick your overpriced American company instead of the cheaper alternatives? Is it because you'll do a better job [slashdot.org]? Don't make me laugh."
So instead of choosing overpriced Americans (or possibly Europeans) you would choose somebody from India? Because they never have failed IT projects:
http://www.computerworlduk.com... [computerworlduk.com]
http://www.computerworld.com/a... [computerworld.com]
http://www.businessinsider.com... [businessinsider.com.au]
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Start by going after Disney, they're replacing all their tech workers with H1B visa workers.
Start by never going to Disney.
Re:First Post - Star Wars (Score:2)
And everyone will still go watch Star Wars The Force Awakens, making them more money, and nothing happens.
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To prevent the abuse of H1B visas replacing Americans, tax the company at $100K per layoff, and give that money to the laid off worker.
So then before they lay everyone off they transfer all of them to a subsidiary with no H1-Bs then shut down said subsidiary. Tax avoided.
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Adding an 100k fee to *anything* will cause businesses to stop it for anything other than hiring CEOs (who I think get their own visa type).
Which any business will point out to their congresscritters if they even thought of trying it. You're effectively outlawing H1-Bs, which they won't tolerate.
I still like the idea of only handing out the H1-Bs to those who intend to pay their workers the *most* of all of the applicants over some minimum. Then you can't be accused of trying to torpedo the program, and t
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Because they're trying to maintain an artificially high standard of living against the rest of the world which is relatively impoverished.
They're riding the tiger. They know that they can't maintain this standard of living forever, something will equalize it, but due to the need to get votes, they don't dare feed the population a dose of bitter medicine. So, they just shrug and try and hold on as long as they can and hope they are dead when reality comes to roost.
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Speak for yourself. The massive amount of extra work for countless developers the world over says otherwise. The lack of apparent effects of Y2K were because there was a tonne of work done to make it that way. I guess if you weren't in the industry when this was happening you might not realise.