H-1B Pay Drags Down All Salaries

Information Week ^ | 6-21-06 | David Roman

[SJackson]

Which is why the Senate wanted to boost the number from 65,000 to 115,000 .

It they're jobs "Americans won't do" or "Americans are too stupid to do", that's one thing, reducing labor costs is another.

'H-1B Only' Job Ad Posters Accused of Discrimination

The Programmers Guild, an IT worker interest group, has filed 300 discrimination complaints so far this year against companies alleged to have posted "H-1B visa holders only" ads on job boards.

[dawn53]

"The upside with the present H-1B system is that jobs stay in America. Every H-1B who comes here supports the economy with the food they buy, the cars they buy, the house they buy. I could go on with the many benefits that the trickle effects of being here bring to the economy."

The house they buy??? Obviously, he doesn't know too many H1B visa workers. They don't buy houses, they live in apartments, or rental houses, and pack them with their friends/or family that are also here on H1B status. They send the money back home, just like the Mexican immigrants do.

[Lion in Winter]

Any minute now the so-called freepers who favor ANYTHING that will help foreign "workers" will be in droves to tell us that it "just tough" IF Americans lose their jobs to NON-CITIZENS-NON-USMILITARY-VETS from around the world.

After all, those who PAY TAXES AND VOTE FOUGHT for our country and SERVED in the military services of this country are just TOO STUPID TO COMPETE WITH THOSE THIRD WORLD GENIUS'!!

sarcasm off!!

YES THE SAME CRUMMY THIRD WORLDERS WHO HATE AMERICA AND WOULD KICK US OUT OF OWN COUNTRY IF THEY COULD!!

[avacado]

This is a touchy subject for me as I have a BSc in Computer Science and my Congressman and Senators know that I will not vote for them if they raise the cap.

With that said, I had worked at a Fortune 500 company and many of us were laid off while the H1-Bs remained. Nuff said.

[Lion in Winter]

The ones around here are packed into TWO bedroom apartments by the TENS!!

[griswold3]

I had to laugh at Linda Chavez when she tried to make the point that they "paid" realestate taxes in their rent. When you "pack" a house, it does not translate to taxes to support the school system they overuse.

[Lion in Winter]

I have relatives who went into or back into the military after they were laid off in favor of H1-Bs.... they were in engineering or computer sciences.

All have served now in Iraq, Korea and Afganistan.. and temporaily, in NEW ORLEANS!!!

Funny, thing there are NO H1-Bs in the military.... guess ONLY Americans can carry that HEAVY LOAD!!

[dawn53]

My husband made the acquaintance of some H1B folks that worked in a building hear him. We visited their apartment once, there were at least 8 people living in an 800 sq ft 2 bedroom apartment. Don't get me wrong, the apartment was in a nice complex and clean, just crowded. They split the rent 8 ways, so they each were paying around 100 bucks a month for rent/etc.

[Lion in Winter]

re my last post.... should have said.... and one served temporaily in New Orleans too.

[ScottfromNJ]

I used to work as a desktop support/network engineer for a large Wall Street brokerage firm. When downsizing occurred during the 2002 recession, the company used that opportunity to release American workers, while retaining foreign workers on the H-1B visa program. When I left, the bulk of engineers remaining were foreigners, which provided the company with cheap, easy to exploit labor.

Qualified American engineers need not apply.

[Centurion2000]

The ones around here are packed into TWO bedroom apartments by the TENS!!

We were overrun by these guys at my old job (financial services, automotive loans) ... they could code (badly) but had troubles with the toilets. Seems they stood on the rim, squated and did their business. I've never seen janitors ready to kill people before, but I did there.

We were considering making a series of quick reference technical guides for them covering bathings, toilet and deoderant usage.

[dawn53]

This was years ago, but my BIL actually enlisted in the USNavy, and he was Canadian at the time. He has since been naturalized, as has my husband. But I think there are many "immigrants" that enroll in the service as a legal way to gain citizenship. H1B folks, do not because they're brought over to work specifically for a certain job or company.

[Lion in Winter]

Even if it was clean... that is not up to code in most MODERN American cities and in some places illegal if the folks are UNRELATED.

They lower our standards and they take AMERICANS jobs. THEY NEED TO GO @#$@$#$$ AWAY!

[DustyMoment]

A major reason for the wage disparity is the fact that many H-1B workers are Indian whose standard of living and COL factors are substantially different from those of their American counterparts.

[Montfort]

No. They do not drive down the salaries of CEOs.

[Lion in Winter]

Look, I am writing about MOST people who join the USA military. While I even knew a Hungarian immigrant when I was in the Army in Korea, MOST of my pals were AMERICAN CITIZENS, then and NOW.

It is great that some folks become citizens after being our military..my buddy, "Hunkie" as he called himself, did it and he had been wounded slightly too.

But,gee whizzzzzzz, AMERICA should show some loyalty to its OWN ... JUST AS THEY EXPECT AMERICANS TO SHOW LOYALTY TO AMERICA AND HER MILITARY.

Oh, yeah, I am old fashioned, so what?

[paulcissa]

I used to work as a desktop support/network engineer for a large Wall Street brokerage firm. When downsizing occurred during the 2002 recession, the company used that opportunity to release American workers, while retaining foreign workers on the H-1B visa program. When I left, the bulk of engineers remaining were foreigners, which provided the company with cheap, easy to exploit labor."

I'll go you one better....the Fortune 500 firm I work for now had a significant downsizing effort over five years that made no apologies for releasing over 10,000 domestic employees. In fact, while the layoffs were hitting every day, job descriptions and paper-titles were being changed to accommodate the "new" workforce of H1B's. It was all completely legal and I'm sure we're saving a ton on payroll.

I'm still here, but the last time I worked a project with another "domestic" employee was many years ago. I call all the H1B's "Corky" just to have a laugh at their expense. My number could be up any day.

[SJackson]

This is a touchy subject for me as I have a BSc in Computer Science and my Congressman and Senators know that I will not vote for them if they raise the cap...With that said, I had worked at a Fortune 500 company and many of us were laid off while the H1-Bs remained. Nuff said.

In a similar vein, the Wall St Journal ran an interesting article (didn't post it, pay site) on the CPA shortage that's developed over the past few years. Among the points, some usage was being made of CPAs from India, particularly outsourcing, but more importantly the number of college accounting majors has tripled over the last 5 years. The market will solve the shortage. But only if allowed to. Another problem with H1-Bs which the article allude to is that if generously available, they essentially define compensation in a particular industry to entry level status.

[SJackson]

A major reason for the wage disparity is the fact that many H-1B workers are Indian whose standard of living and COL factors are substantially different from those of their American counterparts.

Substantially lower than migrants from south of the border as well. As are education costs.

[Lion in Winter]

Oh, that was a visual I did not enjoy.

I would have helped the janitors kick their assetts if given a HALF chance.

Poor AMERICAN WORKERS CLEANING UP THE CRAP OF UNCIVILIZED THIRD WORLDERS WHO WERE PROBABLY MAKING TRIPLE WHAT THOSE JANITORS WERE PAID, HOW DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!