Excellent!
Posted on 06/21/2006 7:34:30 AM PDT by SJackson
PING! Of course they do! Only the computer industry has been targeted, and maybe nurses. Target lawyers (who make a lot more per how then software engineers and have a lot less training, in general) and you will see this program ended as fast as a new Air America show.
DUH!!!! Anyone that works in a tech industry knows that the H1B program is nothing more than a scam... Congress sold out the skilled american workers with this fraud the same way open borders sells out unskilled workers.
No maybe about it, the Senate bill offered unlimited entry to foreign-trained nurses until 2014. Quite an incentive to those contemplating nursing school.
Hello Nurse! - Is the U.S. stealing health care workers from abroad?
The janitors have to learn to apprecriate our guests culture. Or import janitors.
In other news, water is wet, the Pope is Catholic, and bears poop in the woods. Anybody who's in engineering or IT knows this. It's the worst-kept secret in the industry. My prior employer (a small company) was masterful at paying Indian body shops $50,000 a year to put a $30,000 a year programmer into a $65,000 a year job. Everybody wins except poor Sanjay who's making less money than the assistant manager down at Papa John's...but it's still six times what he'd be making in Bangalore.
I mean, I'm sitting at my job, literally surrounded by hundreds of folks here on H-1Bs, wondering when my contracting company is going to decide that not only are they moving all the coding jobs to Hyderabad, but they really don't even need QA testers like me in the States either and they can do it all by remote control. The joys of things when your company's new boss is a hardcore move-it-to-India-to-stay-competitive guy.
On the upside, I've gotten to watch a lot of World Cup highlights in the breakroom.
}:-)4
I had worked at a Fortune 500 company and many of us were laid off while the H1-Bs remained.
--
Been there, done that.
we were told it was part of a business unit re-alignment.
Hope you're doing OK now.
"It was all completely legal and I'm sure we're saving a ton on payroll"
I could imagine a good portion of the savings goes into a large bonus for the CEO.
The article is mainly about the electronics sector. I am on an H1B visa and my pay is about 25% more than the average wage for my occupation and about 50% more than the prevailing wage. But then again, I'm a research scientist. I believe the large corporations do follow their standard hiring practices, at least the one I work for, but these guys from India probably never thought to make a counter offer for their proposed salaries. And they are probably right out of school so they would be offered wages with that experience level. That being said, there are some serious abuses in the electronics/software areas that are disgusting - both for the foreign worker and for the treatment of the American worker.
Companies that hire H1-B's as a way to cut costs are a huge problem. I also think the youth of America is to be blamed as well. A degree in Computer Science is just too difficult for the current "me" generation. Their self-absorbance, their need for instant gratification, and their overall laziness appall me.
I'm on an H1B and bought my own home. And I pay more in property taxes since I'm ineligeible for the homestead excemption and save-our-homes cap. All of the H1B's I know don't rent. They buy. And they don't lived packed in their abodes. But then again, they are from Canada or western Europe where living standards are comparable with the U.S. And we don't send money back home. We use it to live here. Please do not make such blanket generalizations when there are a lot of H1B's who are not being exploited by an employer or are hired to displace U.S. workers. The IT sector is giving a very bad reputation to this program.
You are quite right. PhD research scientists with necessary qualifiactions in a desired field, or combination of fields, are hard to find. I'm on an H1B while waiting for permanent residency and I'm aware of the employment situation. There might only be a handful of such experts in the world for a given type of research position and the H1B program is a good way to bring them in when U.S. recruiting comes up empty. But when companies sponsor mass groups of people just to cut labor costs, that is a big problem.
Just imagine how much more would trickle down if the H-1Bs weren't depressing salaries.
ping
H-1Bs have their uses.
I have to chime in with a first-hand observation. Physicians come to the US on H1B visa's from a number of nations. One whom I know immigrated from the Philippines and obtained a job at a clinic run by another immigrant Phillipino physician. The clinic owner requires the new immigrant physician to pay back a cash fee of many thousands of dollars for the privilege of working for him. This reduces her salary greatly but if she alerts the US government, she is afraid that she will be deported because she has signed papers saying she will not work for less than the prevailing wage in her profession. The responsibility is on her and she will put up with the cash payback so she can remain employed in the US. I was told this is not a unique occurrence.
I have also noted recently that some physician clinics have raised their "partnership buy-in" fees from nothing or a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. I spoke with another immigrant physician (probably on H1B but not confirmed) who is in this position and looking for another job. I don't know if the intent is to exploit immigrants but it in effect greatly reduces the salary paid to young physicians in their first few years of practics, many of whom are immigrants but all of whom make a large salary only for tax purposes and in effect must change jobs (and face the same situation again) or pay back a big percentage of the salary they are paid.
I could not agree with you more.
Excellent!
It's just supply and demand at work here (and of course the supply is elevated by the H1Bs) - if salaries for CS majors were higher, i.e., less supply and/or more demand, you'd see a lot more people investing the effort to enter the field.
Personally I'm wondering why I worked my @$$ of in engineering school to watch teachers make more than me for 3/4 of a year's work.
As I noted earlier, I think one of the unintended effects is locking certain professions at an essentially entry level compensation structure. That’s not uncommon in unskilled and skilled trades. Clearly it’s a disincentive to education and innovation, note my next comment. My impression is that those issues weren’t addressed by government in the creation of the H1B program, that many of the "shortages" result from an unwillingness by employees to revert to entry level compensation, and that the real incentive is largely cost savings.
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