Congress Will Consider Proposal To Raise H-1B Minimum Wage To $100,000 (arstechnica.com) 540
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: President-elect Donald Trump is just a week away from taking office. From the start of his campaign, he has promised big changes to the US immigration system. For both Trump's advisers and members of Congress, the H-1B visa program, which allows many foreign workers to fill technology jobs, is a particular focus. One major change to that system is already under discussion: making it harder for companies to use H-1B workers to replace Americans by simply giving the foreign workers a raise. The "Protect and Grow American Jobs Act," introduced last week by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. and Scott Peters, D-Calif., would significantly raise the wages of workers who get H-1B visas. If the bill becomes law, the minimum wage paid to H-1B workers would rise to at least $100,000 annually, and be adjusted it for inflation. Right now, the minimum is $60,000. The sponsors say that would go a long way toward fixing some of the abuses of the H-1B program, which critics say is currently used to simply replace American workers with cheaper, foreign workers. In 2013, the top nine companies acquiring H-1B visas were technology outsourcing firms, according to an analysis by a critic of the H-1B program. (The 10th is Microsoft.) The thinking goes that if minimum H-1B salaries are brought closer to what high-skilled tech employment really pays, the economic incentive to use it as a worker-replacement program will drop off. "We need to ensure we can retain the world's best and brightest talent," said Issa in a statement about the bill. "At the same time, we also need to make sure programs are not abused to allow companies to outsource and hire cheap foreign labor from abroad to replace American workers." The H-1B program offers 65,000 visas each fiscal year, with an additional 20,000 reserved for foreign workers who have advanced degrees from US colleges and universities. The visas are awarded by lottery each year. Last year, the government received more than 236,000 applications for those visas.
Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not a big fan of Trump, but if he actually delivers on this campaign promise (even if it's just scrawling his signature on the bill and then taking all the credit in speeches) that will be a good thing for me and most employed people on slashdot.
Is there any way this is a bad thing? H1B was supposed to be for bringing in essential foreign talent. If a company isn't willing to pay $100k per year plus the various expenses, whoever they are bringing it must not have been all that talented.
Good post (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not a big fan of Trump, but if he actually delivers on this campaign promise (even if it's just scrawling his signature on the bill and then taking all the credit in speeches) that will be a good thing for me and most employed people on slashdot.
Is there any way this is a bad thing? H1B was supposed to be for bringing in essential foreign talent. If a company isn't willing to pay $100k per year plus the various expenses, whoever they are bringing it must not have been all that talented.
Good post.
We have to get back in the mode where we can say "the other side did this" without assigning blame and descending into name calling.
It's been argued for the last 2 decades (-ish) here on this site that the main problem with American governance is corruption by big business. Regardless of the left or right position we need to start doing things that are good for the people, even if such actions are narrowly bad for business.
This is a good start, it was indeed one of his campaign promises, and that part doesn't matter one bit.
(I'm very curious to see who votes for/against the bill, or if it gets killed in committee.)
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If it gets refused a floor vote is the thing to watch. This is one issue that does tend to peel some R's off from the pack and has enjoyed support from a bipartisan minority.
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I didn't know Calvin Coolidge was nicknamed "dubya". What a coincidence that two presidents have been called that.
The actual quote is
“After all, the chief business of the American people is business.”
But he goes on to say:
“Of course, the accumulation of wealth cannot be justified as the chief end of existence,” he said. “But we are compelled to recognize it as a means to well-nigh every desirable achievement. So long as wealth is made the means and not the end, we need not greatly fear it...But it calls for additional effort to avoid even the appearanc [thisdayinquotes.com]
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This has nothing to do with Trump. This is the exact same bill Issa introduced last session. GOP leadership wouldn't put it up for a vote then and they aren't going to put it up for a vote this time. The bill they are interested in removes all HB1 caps. Trump has said he wants to go to a market based bid system for visas.
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It is
I maybe about to be modded -1 but if you ask any IT director or HR manager they will tell you good talent is very hard to find. No, I am not talking about a senior level position with a Jr level paid below market value.
I am talking about a freaking developer or System Administrator who is competent in NoSQL, Erlang, or any mobile platform development working for ANY WAGE. Sure one could argue that is a 100K job. I would argue some are most are not. A good Unix System Administrator where I am in Houston
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They either find none of those magical creatures or they get bullshit artists instead.
What they do not understand is that with either a bit of training or merely just time on the job a large number of those applicants that do not come up to scratch with the unrealistic yardsticks are going to be just as good or far better than the bullshit artists that claimed they met the yards
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
MY brother works for a successful company which I won't name. It is fortune 250. HE goes to India because he too can't find anyone qualified. THe salaries he uses from HR are from his local Department of Labor. No he DOES NOT CHEAP out. He can't find anyone willing to work at least 25% over the market average in his area. He has no choice
If your brother has data that says the market average wage is X and he finds that he is unable to hire anyone for less than X+25%, doesn't that mean that your brother's data is incorrect, and that the actual market wage IS X+25%? Isn't the most accurate market pricing what you would actually have to pay into the market to obtain the goods or services you're looking for? Any "data" which suggests otherwise is out of date or inaccurate.
What I see in this situation is businesses using data to insist on a wage ceiling, probably because they have a business model designed to function only below a specific and arbitrary wage ceiling. The larger problem is probably a total compensation number, including executive compensation, that can't grow to accommodate market wage demands without influencing product pricing in a way that hurts sales.
I would suggest that the real problem is excessive executive compensation and that reducing executive compensation to pay actual market wages for necessary labor to keep total compensation in line with the product pricing is the best solution. Meeting market wage demands will in theory bring more labor into the market, increasing its supply and ultimately slowing or even reducing wage growth.
I also think there are powerful class dynamics at work here as well, where certain labor positions are seen as inherently less worthy than others and regardless of actual market prices, firms want to impose compensation caps on certain types of labor because it disrupts the class dynamics. Some classes of workers are seen as inherently more valuable than others and should *always* be paid more than others. When the market prices suggest that these lower classed workers need to be paid more to attract and retain them, you have the higher classed workers attempting to cap wages for the lower classes, because the alternatives are paying the market wages and losing their class status.
What's interesting is that nobody suggests that the paying the lower class of labor a higher wage than the higher class of worker doesn't have to mean that the higher class of worker (ie, managers) also loses their power and authority, only that they are paid less. Even average professional athletes make more money than most coaching staff, but this doesn't diminish the power of the coaching staff to control the players and regulate their labor activities.
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is the loopholes though. This act won't improve shit if companies are still allowed to skim 95% of that 100k salary and fill H1-B seats with 5$/hour contractors instead.
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
If the client pays $100k it's still a more viable option for them to consider hiring an American, except of course in California. This also fixes another loophole where nonprofits could bring in all the H1Bs they want with no cap - they still can, but needing to pay $100k, indexed for inflation, is a lot better than it is now.
Making the bill even sweeter, actual wages in America are NOT increasing with inflation. So in 10 or 20 years, that 100k will effectively be even higher.
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
It is not that simple. It is much harder for an H1-B to change jobs. I'm not sure it's true that a large employer would always prefer a $90k US citizen over a $100k H1-B.
This is one part of the H1-B program that I do agree needs to be reformed.
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
True. They are pretty much indentured servants. If they move to another company, the new company has to be willing to go through all the legal BS to continue their H1-B and potentially their green card paperwork. So there is a lot of incentive to not bounce around.
The whole H1-B program is mostly a sham. Go to any Fortune X company and do a skill assessment of their foreign contractors. The number that turn out to be "exceptional talents" with hard to find degrees or special training/experience is actually rather small. The consulting companies barely go through the motions to hide that so the expectation of getting caught seems to be pretty low.
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And the number who ACTUALLY HAVE the hard to find degrees is even smaller. The middlemen who bring in the H1-Bs sometimes pad their resumes with non-existent credentials in order to get the necessary approvals from the government (or the employer to do the hire). often to the chagrin of the employee in question shoud h
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A more honest way to do it would be to make them citizens and then employ them under the same circumstances as any other citizen that applies. For a long list of reasons that honest approach is not politically viable while the dishonest one with both control and downward wage pressure on citizens is.
IMHO immigration in general is a huge mess and the H1-B is just one little twisted aspect of it.
For a bit of the 1990s I was unemploye
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You don't even need to make them citizens, just make it so they own their own visa. Then they can change jobs at will.
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't even need to make them citizens, just make it so they own their own visa. Then they can change jobs at will.
We don't want them changing jobs at will. They are here to fill a specific need. Once they have done that, they should go home and employ their skills there. We have qualified citizens here who need jobs. Up until we institute a MGI, we're going to need to be protectionist about those jobs.
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:4, Interesting)
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It's unfortunate that the program has been abused to replace American workers. (Which is in direct violation of how the program is supposed to work. You'r
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If the client pays $100k it's still a more viable option for them to consider hiring an American, except of course in California.
It will probably be effective in California, too. There is a baked-in cost for hiring a H1B, and there is also overhead cost to employing H1Bs. If the initial buy-in cost is increased, it will at least make a dent here.
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Interesting)
It IS illegal to replace a local worker with an H1B worker under the current system, it is also required to do a search and hire locally first. The problem is nobody cares, over the years less than a dozen companies have ever been investigated and only a handful have ever been banned from applying for more H1B's and even then, the companies investigated and banned are very obvious shell companies.
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If they genuinely are the only person in the world with the expertise and the research is that important...then cough up the 100k. A university with a billion dollar grant can afford that, and if they have a doctorate and a truly irreplaceable skill, they deserve north of 100k...
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
A completely free market leads to monopolies and continually lower standards of living for the majority of citizens.
Completely free markets are just as bad as communism and socialism.
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:4, Insightful)
Isn't there a huge expanse between what we have now and a completely free market?
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes. Right now the US has a huge crony capitalism problem, that's been built upon by decades of democrats and republicans. And they're fighting tooth and fucking nail to stop Trump anyway they can from breaking their gravy train.
Re: Well Trump has one thing right (Score:2, Informative)
Trump is the conductor of the gravy train. He's a multimillionaire mogul.
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. Right now the US has a huge crony capitalism problem, that's been built upon by decades of democrats and republicans. And they're fighting tooth and fucking nail to stop Trump anyway they can from breaking their gravy train.
The language you use to describe the problem is hurting your ability to solve the problem. You could as much call it crony socialism and be describing exactly the same thing, but the solutions that would get proposed would look somewhat different (and would invariably fail to eliminate the crony component, which is the actual loathsome bit.)
We have a problem with politically connected entities being able to obtain special privileges for themselves at the public's expense.
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The language you use to describe the problem is hurting your ability to solve the problem. You could as much call it crony socialism and be describing exactly the same thing, but the solutions that would get proposed would look somewhat different (and would invariably fail to eliminate the crony component, which is the actual loathsome bit.)
Well crony just means "a close friend especially of long standing" so basically you could use that to describe all forms of "I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine" relationships. If people with an Ivy League degree only hire people with other Ivy League degrees it's a form of cronyism. Crony socialism would be "some animals are more equal than others". However "crony capitalism" as a combined term has been refined past "cronyism in capitalism" like an old boys club of rich white men sitting on each
Re: Well Trump has one thing right (Score:3)
Sweden is not a socialist country. That's a terrible example.
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
"Right now the US has a huge crony capitalism problem"
Back in the tycoon days you had basically unfettered capitalism. Because of that, big tycoons were able to set their way even to buy government -and that's how you got today's "crony capitalism problem".
Now: is there a way unfettered capitalism doesn't evolution into crony capitalism? I don't think so.
Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you fucking serious? This is the same Trump who just nominated the who's who of crony capitalism for his cabinet?
Trump gives zero shits about cronyism or the "swamp" or any such thing. He said anything necessary to get elected, and has even admitted such repeatedly. In fact, saying he gives zero shits is inaccurate - he is all in favor of cronyism, he just found it expedient to say otherwise because his sheeple followers believed anything he said.
"Funny how that term caught on, isn't it?" Trump mused during a rally this month in Des Moines, Iowa. "I tell everyone, I hated it. Somebody said 'drain the swamp' and I said, 'Oh, that is so hokey. That is so terrible.'"
"I said, all right, I'll try it," Trump continued. "So like a month ago I said 'drain the swamp' and the place went crazy. And I said 'Whoa, what's this?' Then I said it again. And then I start saying it like I meant it, right? And then I started to love it, and the place loved it. Drain the swamp. It's true. It's true. Drain the swamp."
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...which is an argument to eliminate the special treatment provided by the H-1B program. The mentioned change is a step toward that from the status quo. Are you opposed, or do you wish to eliminate all barriers to immigration so the H-1B program would be superflous?
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My brain hurts after trying to process this. A $100k min wage for H1-Bs... brings us closer to a free market? Let's be honest here. Tech worked hard H1-Bs because tech workers are enjoying a demand-supply imbalance in their favor leading to $150k-$250k salaries for jobs that used to be in the $90k-$150k range. Bringing in more supply is taking away the punch bowl.
We can debate whether this is good or bad for the US. But we can't even get there because people are pretending this is a distortive force rather
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Absolutely. Reductio ad absurdum - if it were $10M, it would be like the market interference of the H1-B program didn't exist at all. How hard is that to understand?
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How do you deal with the self-selection problem, given the welfare state?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Well he points out you can't have open immigration with a welfare state, which we have. He pretty much advocates leaving things where they are. So in order to remove all barriers to immigration you have to first get rid of the welfare state (good luck). Then you have to open immigration with the understanding that the welfare state cannot be reinstituted. Unfortunately even if you managed to pull off step 1 you won't be able to do this because the general population is not rational. Having open borders
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Re:Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
You say this, but with what proof? And inflation is not always a bad thing, especially if the average income and standard of living outpaces it.
As a counter, Walmart raised their minimum wage this year, and saw significant revenue gains, because their employees now have more money to re-inject into the economy aka buy shit at Walmart!
It's been long established that when you give lots of money to already rich people, they just stash it away. When you give money to poor people, they actually immediately go and spend it to but what they need. Trickle down economics is the biggest fucking joke, it just doesn't work.
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We already have talent in the USA that has no equal. Problem is that 3/4 of software engineers leave the field due to poor work conditions and relatively low pay given the intelligence, drive, time, and skill involved. Why go into engineering when management or sales pays double for less work? We have a retention issue, not a hiring issue.
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Low pay? What are you talking about? Here is the most recent data on internships and entry level tech company positions in Silicon Valley: https://twitter.com/jtc_au/sta... [twitter.com]
Do you understand that the median income in the US is around $50k?
Tech workers always come off as completely disconnected from reality when they whine about low pay. There are very few other positions where you can make what you make right out of undergrad and then continue to have wage growth well above COLA.
And then your other point, I
Re: Mod parent up (Score:3, Insightful)
We have a winner. Sorry Slashdot. Realistically you can't be all conservative and gong ho Libertarian like most all and so that is the market wage yada yada with other people's jobs including minimum wage hikes or automation stories with posts about increasing demands for robots ..... then cry WANNA UNFAIR.
I am not saying I agree with this. But rather I want to state economic reality. If you put in artificial caps the market will respond appropriately and negatively. Our version of robots taking over is to
Re: Mod parent up (Score:5, Insightful)
These are solid middle class jobs that are not super specialized anymore.
If they're not super specialized it shouldn't be an issue to find someone locally to do it for less than $100k. The H1B program was supposed to be for filling those really difficult to fill jobs.
And if you truly can't find anyone to do it locally, then it should be worth $100k to you.
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That's perfectly fine. If you can be more competitive by physically running your company offshore then you should do that.
Re: Well Trump has one thing right (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh, Carrier did move most of the jobs. Ford never was going to. While those were large numbers of jobs, you do realize that about 85,000 people lose their jobs each week day, right? So the 800 Carrier jobs would be 1% of a single day of job losses. this is why presidents typically don't track down jobs here and there, they need to setup the system and let the chips fall, correcting the larger system when they can--but the invisible hand does most of the doing.
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Just can the entire guest worker series. (Score:2)
An even better solution - move to a points system and no guest workers.
Re:Just can the entire guest worker series. (Score:5, Interesting)
An even better solution - move to a points system and no guest workers.
Here's another even better solution: Set a fixed limit, and then auction off the visas to the highest bidder, with the proceeds going to the US Treasury. Currently, they are free (other than a processing fee) and issued to whomever is first in the queue. An auction would ensure they go to the companies that value them the most, and have a real need to import critical skills, rather than just looking for cheap labor.
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First come first serve? No. H1-B is a lottery system.
Another great post (Score:2)
Here's another even better solution: Set a fixed limit, and then auction off the visas to the highest bidder, with the proceeds going to the US Treasury. Currently, they are free (other than a processing fee) and issued to whomever is first in the queue. An auction would ensure they go to the companies that value them the most, and have a real need to import critical skills, rather than just looking for cheap labor.
Hmm... 65,000 visas auctioned off for $1000 each would net about $65 million, possibly more.
That's actually enough to pay for some of the smaller services, and it's a great idea.
What's been going on with Slashdot? There's been, like, 4 insightful posts in the last 24 hours.
Re:Another great post (Score:5, Interesting)
Hmm... 65,000 visas auctioned off for $1000 each would net about $65 million, possibly more.
I think it would net WAY more than that. My company paid a lawyer $10k to do the H1-B paperwork for an important employee from a site we were closing in Europe. It turned out that we didn't even get the visa. If we could have just bid instead, I think we would have been willing to pay at least $50k, and likely a lot more, to guarantee a quota.
I agree (Score:3)
Hmm... 65,000 visas auctioned off for $1000 each would net about $65 million, possibly more.
I think it would net WAY more than that. My company paid a lawyer $10k to do the H1-B paperwork for an important employee from a site we were closing in Europe. It turned out that we didn't even get the visa. If we could have just bid instead, I think we would have been willing to pay at least $50k, and likely a lot more, to guarantee a quota.
I agree completely, I was just hesitant to speculate that much on the value.
We're now talking about a billion dollars in revenue, which for comparison purposes is a sizeable percentage of the $18b NASA budget or the $6b NOAA budget.
With that amount of money, over 20 years you could rebuild a lot of infrastructure.
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Re:Just can the entire guest worker series. (Score:4, Interesting)
An even better solution - move to a points system and no guest workers.
Here's another even better solution: Set a fixed limit, and then auction off the visas to the highest bidder, with the proceeds going to the US Treasury. Currently, they are free (other than a processing fee) and issued to whomever is first in the queue. An auction would ensure they go to the companies that value them the most, and have a real need to import critical skills, rather than just looking for cheap labor.
Seriously? Like the Tech Giants don't already have enough unfair advantages over smaller rivals and especially Startups which are the companies most likely to need to look offshore for people with uncommon skills
Re:Just can the entire guest worker series. (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is all the big companies shit on the small and medium sized ones. Gee with the rampant corruption and unlimited campaign contributions just who do you think will get those lovely cheap workers?
Also many are Doctors and Engineering professionals and not just helpdesk sweatshops.
How the can smaller guy compete with the big houses then for projects at companies when they can offer the same service for 1/2 the price due to cheaper labor?
The solution is to charge 25% above the average market value by county which keeps statistics for job titles. Let's say that Sr Unix admin is worth $125,000 a year in San Jose? The H1B1 visa holder can do the job but by law has to pay $156,260. A Sr. Unix Admin in rural Texas is worth $70,000 a year? Hire an H1B1 Visa for $87,500.
The doctors can still come here with no limit. Since they are specialists mostly they already charge $250,000 a year so the extra cost won't prohibit hospitals from hiring these doctors which America desperately needs which I think most slashdotters agree is what the Visa program was originally for
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Ok, let's say I'm a business hiring an H1-B. How do you prevent me from using a lower salary title that only really describes part of the person's job description? Outside of govt and large corporations, job titles are less meaningful and job descriptions are very fluid.
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They need to match. For example if you lie on your taxes you can get in big trouble. By law corporations have to fill out the paperwork titles showing they tried but can get away by using fake job ads etc. My solution is get rid of the fake ads.
Charge a particular title and the department of labor ensures your company that you follow the description exactly and pay the extra money accordingly. This way we can hire people when a REAL shortage is in. Today they just use a contacting company as a loophole. I c
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You didn't really answer my question. You basically just said: companies won't be allowed to do that. That is not practical.
job titles are to easy to game now an COL based m (Score:3)
job titles are to easy to game now an COL based mini wage for H-1b's say rangeing from 90K-150K+ Is nice.
And it's easier to stop people from gameing the location.
Min wage (Score:2)
âAnd, here, tech folks admit that increasing the minimum wage leads to less employmentâ.
Tipping point (Score:5, Interesting)
Those companies will be replaced. (Score:2)
They can and will be replaced with companies that don't see US citizens (of all skill levels) as a problem.
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You can bet your sweet ass companies are going to do what's best for their revenue stream.
If H1-B is pricing itself out of the market, so be it.
There is a risk of embarrassment. I predict ... ... well, first I predict this will never fly, but ... ... that companies will simply pay the penalty because American workers just don't have the skills.
The school system is a fucked up goddam mess for producing college material.
Foreigners see the value in preparing for US schools and then excelling in university.
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If they wanted to do that, why wouldn't they already be doing it?
And how many companies do you really think have a business model that depends on importing H-1Bs and paying them $65k? Lots of people would welcome those companies to go offshore in order to free up H-1B slots for higher-paid people and to preserve some middle-income jobs for the people who are already here.
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Well... I suppose that might work with kickbacks... which might be easier to get away with in the near future.
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You are right. I confused myself. My workaround is for one of the other equally idiotic anti-H1B proposals.
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Considering nobody here will have money, due to being unemployed, why would they want to sell their products here?
In general, in order to be successful at trade, you have to maintain a fine balance between the extremes of protectionism and the derelictions of "free trade". Not to say our policies are perfect, but just slapping down tariffs won't end well.
(On this bill itself, I'm undecided... it sounds like a simple solution, but then... there is a saying about simple solutions. The bill probably is a bit
Why lottery? (Score:2)
Leave the work of determining who to bring in to the H1-b sponsors. If they want to pay $50,000 to get their guy in, and another company wants to pay $60,000 for their guy, then it's pretty obvious who we should let in.
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A too, am a fan of "Race to the bottom" economics. Fuck those plebeians who want a livable wage when some drug addict will work for a couple of hits of heroin.
No H1-Bs for high rent areas (Score:5, Interesting)
I would restrict H-1Bs to only areas of the country where residential rents (per sq. foot) are in the lower 50 percentile. If Google or Facebook wants to hire someone on an H-1B, open an office in Idaho or Mississippi or Fresno and hire them there. High skilled immigration is supposed to help the US, not just San Jose.
Or, alternately, if you want to hire $1 worth of H-1B payroll in a high rent area, then move $3 in payroll to a lower rent area.
This would help immigrants learn about America and Americans learn about immigrants. And it would help encourage tech companies to open facilities somewhere where people go to live rather than somewhere people go only to work.
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Yes, like top talent is going to want to move to the US to live in a shitty city.
If they are prejudiced against those places in America then they are welcome to stay home.
You will only get workers from places that are even shittier,
San Jose isn't exactly a paradise, you know.
So who do you think is going to want to come to the US to live in Idaho under those conditions?
What's wrong with Idaho? You can own a great big house on a middle-class income. There's skiing and hunting and fishing. It's a very American place. If you find Americanism objectionable, then (obviously) don't come here to live.
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Great. Just what we need. Yet another means tested program.
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High skilled immigration is supposed to help the US, not just San Jose.
Make those states not fucking suck and people will want to live there and start companies there.
The reason everyone and everything moves to California is that it's better. The climate is superior to any other state in the union for the support of human life. We have a concentration of educated people here. While I live in bumfuck where there is nothing, we have loads of communications infrastructure here. The only other state with as much culture is New York, and the interesting parts of it smell a lot more
Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
I just got done hiring two people... (Score:4, Interesting)
I have spent the last several months hiring two QA engineers. I got about two dozen resumes that had been pre-screened by the corporate recruiter. All of them were somewhat qualified. I phone interviewed about half of those, and had about 8-10 people come in for interviews.
Most of them were on some kind of work program. I only saw resumes for three men, and one came in for an interview. He was from an African country. I think the other two may have been Americans, but I didn't phone interview them and am only guessing by their names.
All the rest of the resumes were women, and only 1 was American.
So while I understand the sentiment that the H1B program is being used to "replace American workers" - which I am sure it is - I personally don't see it. I did not get any qualified Americans applying for the position. There was nothing wrong with the salary or the market we are in, and nothing specialized about the positions. Now I do know that Big Corporations are able to use-and-abuse the visa program because I have seen it firsthand. But there is also some good that comes out of the program as well.
I guess this what we've been reduced to though, you have to choose one end of the spectrum, there's no in-between on anything.
Re: I just got done hiring two people... (Score:3, Insightful)
Or your "corporate recruiter" screened out the Americans, folks over 40, etc......
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That said, it doesn't mean there aren't companies u
Still too low (Score:4, Insightful)
$100,000 is still too low. I'd say $300,000, but I'm open to an auction system too. The auction method would need a quota, and the other could safely be open ended.
Re:Still too low (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, $100k is definitely still too low.
$150k to $200k ideally.
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outside a few small spots of the USA, a 100,000$ a year salary is like hitting the lottery, try visiting places in the country
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You know there are some positions (not helpdesk sweatshops) that require under 100k a year? Your local system administrator, help desk tier II/III, and doctors, and college interns for those studying abroad.
A physician does not make more than 100K a year until well after residency which is 2 years long. These are jobs we need.
I favor a 25% salary increase over the average market value for the said position. This way it is scalable and if someone really can not find talent truly and are not just cheaping out
Something feels off about this. (Score:3)
Something feels off about this. I want to make it clear I hated both Hillary and Trump and think they're equally dangerous.
This won't increase the minimum wage for existing tech workers. In places like Redmond and the Bay Area, wages are already way over $100k. I don't think this will really change things for the best.
The only people who will be able to afford H1-B people are the big companies. I have a feeling this will starve the rest of the IT sector, consolidate jobs in Seattle/SF/NYC, and only allow the very large companies to even hire immigrants. This will push less qualified workers out of these high income areas and into 100k/year jobs in rural areas. Amazon/Microsoft/Google/Whoever will be able to hire the best US and on-US workers.
Marxist solution (Score:3)
Groucho: Well give them more money then!
Rim Shot.
Close The Masters Degree Loophole (Score:5, Insightful)
My graduate program is chock full of unqualified "fresher" Indians looking to exploit the Masters degree loophole.
Best and the brightest? Don't make me laugh.
A lot of smart talent - will this thing backfire? (Score:2)
Not only jobs, but also housing prices (Score:2)
If they want cream, it need to be 120k (Score:2)
I've spent too much time throwing out off shored code. Just worthless.
I've had offshore teams coding for me. Asia fails. China, India, never got it right.
I had a team in Hungry, they were good. Not great, I said don't and one did it anyway. Language issues
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Easiest mistake to make is misunderstanding that offshoring is NOT a apples for apples replacement and it does require unique skills and new expense to make it work.
There are plenty of offshore firms who have successful relationships with US companies. Select one of these firms and try them out. If it fails, it's probably you.
It must really suck... (Score:2, Insightful)
Kill it with fire (Score:5, Interesting)
So no, raising the minimum H1-B wage is just theater. Kill the program and replace it with something far more fair for everyone involved. Well, except the greedy companies sucking the job out of life.
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Slavery is already illegal, actually. If an employee trains his replacement, it's voluntary. Usually they are compensated with severance, which of course they are not entitled to. We can say this is a dick move by employers, but it's not forced.
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Sorry but this is just outright nuts. Who the hell are you or the govt to say a free person can't provide training services for $25,000 if they want to?
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Just because one choice has consequences doesn't mean you are forced not to choose it. Most choices have consequences. The examples you cite are all voluntary.
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The US graduates the worlds 'best and brightest" every year. The US has no advanced skills issues. Engineers, doctors, artists, artisans, lawyers, scientists, technicians all flow out of of the US educations system every year in bulk.
If you got your education in the USA and legally want to stay on your fine.
If you have the one skill the USA cant find in all its universities and within a vast pool of decades of skill
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Re: (Score:2)
Um, no. The increase to $100k for H1-B pushes employers to use US labor in exactly the same way that a $15/hr min wage pushes employers to use automation. When you increase the cost of one alternative, you make other alternatives more attractive.