Posted on 10/29/2005 7:25:40 AM PDT by vrwc0915
It appears there is hard evidence to prove that employers are using the H-1B visa program to hire cheap labor; that is, to pay lower wages than the national average for programming jobs.
According to “The Bottom of the Pay Scale: Wages for H-1B Computer Programmers — F.Y. 2004,” a report by Programmers Guild board member John Miano, non-U.S. citizens working in the United States on an H-1B visa are paid “significantly less than their American counterparts.” How much less? “On average, applications for H-1B workers in computer occupations were for wages $13,000 less than Americans in the same occupation and state.”
Miano based his report on OES (Occupational Employment Statistics) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics which estimates wages for the entire country by state and metropolitan area. The report’s H-1B wage data came from the U.S. Department of Labor’s H-1B disclosure Web site.
Miano went out of his way to be balanced, and whenever possible he gave the benefit of the doubt to the employer. For example, he used OES data from 2003 because this is the wage information that would have been available to the employers when filing an LCA (labor condition application).
Miano had some difficulty matching OES job codes with LCA job titles, which employers typically create. Where both the OES and the LCA listed a job as “programmer/analyst,” Miano took the conservative approach of assuming that the LCA was describing a programmer, a job title that typically earns a lower wage than a systems analyst.
Nonetheless, Miano’s report shows that wages paid to H-1B workers in computer programming occupations had a mean salary of $52,312, while the OES mean was $67,700; a difference of $15,388. The report also lists the OES median salary as $65,003, or $12,691 higher than the H-1B median.
When you look at computer job titles by state, California has one of the biggest differentials between OES salaries and H-1B salaries. The average salary for a programmer in California is $73,960, according to the OES. The average salary paid to an H-1B visa worker for the same job is $53,387; a difference of $20,573.
Here are some other interesting national wage comparisons: The mean salary of an H-1B computer scientist is $78,169, versus $90,146 according to the OES. For an H-1B network analyst, the mean salary is $55,358, versus the OES mean salary of $64,799. And for the title “system administrator,” there was a $17,478 difference in salary between the H-1B mean and the OES mean.
H-1B visa workers were also concentrated at the bottom end of the wage scale, with the majority of H-1B visa workers in the 10-24 percentile range. “That means the largest concentration of H-1B workers make less than [the] highest 75 percent of the U.S. wage earners,” the report notes.
While it would be difficult to prove that any one particular employer is hiring foreign workers to pay less, the statistics show us that, for whatever reason, this is exactly what is happening on a nationwide basis. Miano says lobbyists will admit that a small number of companies are abusing the H-1B program, but what he has found in this research is that almost everyone is abusing it.
“Abuse is by far more common than legitimate use,” he says.
as a business owner, would you hire someone totally unqualified for a position that you had no time to train someone for?
but really, my 'so?' remark was that I couldn't care less if they paid them 1/5 of what was going rate and made them sleep outside, I am fed up with immigration and immigrants
I think the U.S. issued 65,000 H1-B's this year, and there is talk of raising the limit to 95,000.
Sure am glad we've got a REPUBLICAN president letting this stuff happen. If it was a Democrat, it would suck.
And it's not those 65,000 H1-B's, either. That is my point.
Not really. If you make less than say, 40k, you pay much less in income taxes. You know progressive income tax, sliding scale and all that.
Does this mean that the Great Pumpkin is really NOT going to bring me that F-150? Waaaaahhhhhh!!
Something I had forgotten but refreshed my memory after reading a few days ago...
When Rockefeller was confirmed by Congress to be appointed VP under Ford...records showed he had not paid one dime of Federal income tax during the past eleven years.
Not only no F-150, you will be lucky if you are not dragged off to the Gulag.
Those 2 or 3 families? What visas are they holding? I think you are confused.
No, they are here on H-1B visas. I have seen it up-close-and-personal when the boom was here in Silicon Valley. My rent shot up 33% during the .com era. Since many of the .commers have departed, my rent has been lowered to what it was before the .com era.
The way you can identify the jobs that are going to H1B visa holders is the way the jobs are advertised. The federal law requires that you post the hours of employment in the ad. So what you see typically is a job description which is essentially so specific it is a fingerprint of Hadji - the H1B holder they really want to hire, then it lists a salary (let's say $90,000/year) and then hours M-F 9-5. That's the giveaway that it is an ad merely meeting the requirement that the employer advertise for some period and then fail to come up with a U.S. citizen meeting the job requirements. Another giveaway - it's in the smallest type font available in whatever publication it is located.
It's an abuse of the law because there are plenty of people that can do those jobs. It forces down wages, forces down tax revenue, which ultimately makes it a national security issue.
Anything else?
H1-B visas require an American sponsor. Are you thinking of L visas?
What's going to kill America is taxation, regulation, and social welfare. I'm not talking about helping out the Katrina victims (as a clear example) when I say social welfare. I'm talking about things like the bill before Congress that Rush mentioned the other day to buy set top devices that allow poor people to watch TV without having to buy a new digital set.
Taxation and regulation have already driven many businesses overseas or out of business. When you make the cost too high to do business in one locale, business will migrate. Business profitability is all about maximizing revenue and minimizing costs. The laws of economics are like the laws of physics - they cannot be changed or defeated. Lose money and your business dies.
That, and the hatred that the socialist media spews on a daily basis toward American business about how they only want to make a profit, how they are killing the environment and their workers, how they're corrupt, etc. I remember how everyone used to say "I don't want to end up working in some factory". Well, guess what, guys, you got your wish. Politicians and the bureaucracy chased those jobs right on down to Mexico, and to China.
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