Posted on 01/23/2006 7:39:54 AM PST by doc30
There are also lots of interesting charts and tables at the link. If someone wants to post them, please do so. THis is a very analytical report that should be cited when people make claims about H1B wages.
ping
Can I add anecdotal evidence??? We have an H1B from India who makes about 12.00 less an hour than his American or Canadian counterparts (marine designers) fortunately for him several other companies have taken an interest in him since he's gotten a reputation as a dedicated and efficient worker. He's been a project of ours, working on getting him into a company who will treat him fairly.
Bump to read later. Luckily, Mr. elc is paid well comparitively, on his H1-B. And his green card should be through in a couple of months.
ping
Thank you for posting this, the H1-B program is hurting our nation and has affected me personally. This report is right on the money.
The H1-B visa program is a sham that should be stopped. It most CERTAINLY should not be expanded!!!
I've posted this before, but it's time again to submit another anecdotal (via a couple of Indians and Pakistanis).
The tactic they tell is for the "Mother Ship" contracting company to put the H1B on salary, then work him 60+ hours a week. Well, at first blush, no big deal, that's what some American companies do.
The kicker is the contracting company only bills the customer for 40 hours, no matter how many real hours are worked. As a bottom-line oriented manager, who would you hire - an hourly-paid American contractor or a salaried H1B?
I hope so, too. Just as a reminder to those in the immigration debate, I am on an H1B and am in the permanent residence application process. Just for disclosure, I'm not in the IT sector, and am well compensated (i.e. well above the prevailing wage). My salary is not undercutting U.S. workers, but I am in an area of high specialization requiring a PhD in a very specific area. I'm happy to hear you are helping out someone that appears to have been caught up as a wage slave. It is disturbing to me that the IT sector seems to be particularly abusing the H1B program.
Let me share my experience with this issue.
Approximately 5 years ago, during a tight labor market we had some software engineers that were working on H1B visas about 4 or 5 of them. They were reasonably tallented, a couple were very tallented.
However our revenues never grew to support the number of people we had hired, and we were forced to lay off engineers. Every one of the people on H1B visas were layed off. My boss explained to me that in order to hire someone on a H1B visa he had to justify that a citizen with equivalent skills wasn't available. While some of the people on H1B visas were very tallented, they were not irreplacable, and that made them the first to go when layoffs were needed.
In an area with a tight labor market, it's more likely that they will be able to find jobs at an equivalent pay rate to an American citizen.
However, since the employer is supposed to first try and hire an American citizen, they don't have an equal chance to get the most desirable jobs.
This means that in many cases they will have to settle for jobs for which they may be overqualified, or working for companies that don't pay premiums to get the best employees.
There may be some employers that are simply paying low wages and relying on H1B visa workers willingness to work at those wages. However, there also doesn't seem to be a lot of unemployed people in the computer industry, so it's hard to say that the industry is flooded with low wage workers.
Companies get the indentured workers while using the perspective of permanent residency and future citizenship as a PART OF THE PAY PACKAGE, So the citizenship is being sold in exchange for the cheap indentured labor to benefit private interests.
Bingo!
Thank you!
Thanx. Let me make a new tagline
I've been replaced by H1-B's on a few jobs. I bear them no ill will, as these are the people who are willing and eager to work, and are willing to enter the country legally and jump through all the hoops.
The average H1-B is a much better addition to our country than someone who sneaks across our borders in hopes of finding a minimum wage job or living on petty theft!
Unlike A. Pole I have no problem with someone temporarily exchanging low pay indentured servitude for citizenship, although I would much prefer that this be done openly and honestly.
As far as scrapping the whole system, I'd say no. PreciousLiberty is right in being disgusted with the way it is currently working, but the solution is right in the H1-B laws, there are protections for US workers, they are simply being ignored.
Here's a novel idea - how about enforcing and following the Law?
Okay...
The Border Ping List is normally used to highlight border issues, but I find this article (although a bit hard to read - LOL!) interesting in it's premise that folks who come here on H1B Visas are being abused in terms of wages and hours. One poster has called them indentured servants.
And that's the connection. I've been saying for quite some time that the illegals crossing our southern border are also being abused in much the same manner - working at relatively low-paying jobs in order to pay off their crossing fees, or to pay for the crossing fees for family members.
Don't you think that it would be fairer to sell it on the open market and the proceeds to be distributed EVENLY between all already existing US citizens? If the citizenship and country is on sale why the private parties should be get this money?
This corroborates all the anecdotals that the "what-me-worry" lobby sneered at.
They will be forced to try and challenge this study directly. It completely undermines all their claims.
And since almost the exact same arguments were advanced by them for other areas of technical expertise...it is likely they also warrant extreme doubt...and mountains of salt.
"Nationally, recently reports show the overall unemployment rate is 5.8 percent, down from 6.2 percent in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for engineers has increased over the same period from 3.8 percent to 4.2 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics."
And this is happening while there is a decline in the number of students going into engineering and CS.
However, since the employer is supposed to first try and hire an American citizen, they don't have an equal chance to get the most desirable jobs.
Employers get around that by crafting a position around a specific H1B Candidate. He might have some obscure skill (say m68k assembly) that is not really needed for the job. All a manager has to do is put it in the job description and they can say 'well no American available to do this job'..
Actually the candidate does not have this skill. It is enough that he says that he does.
The DOL website has the December 2005 unemployment rate at 4.9% not 5.8%.
www.dol.gov
Where did you get your figures?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.