4 ms·

A concern I have when I see the suggestion to simply set a higher salary floor. There are foreign workers for many other job types (translation, chef, specialt

A concern I have when I see the suggestion to simply set a higher salary floor. There are foreign workers for many other job types (translation, chef, specialty craftsman) that likely fall far short of what we consider a fair base salary in tech. These are exactly the sort of foreign workers, however, I'd imagine we WANT coming in, since they are by definition specialty and non-replaceable. Would they still have an avenue into the country, without precluding their use to only those with the money to pay exorbitant salaries? (I don't actually know the visa system well enough; I'm curious if they could use a different visa type or something of that respect) Otherwise I'd worry about the unintended side effects of such an approach, notably because as mentioned above, the problem seems to be more one of the semantic requirements of visa-ship being abused than just salary requirements at the root of the problem. (the latter is certainly happening, but doesn't seem like the core, better worded.)

protomyth 11y ago
I am speaking only for STEM workers. That is where the biggest conflict lies. It does seem a bit odd to mix cultural folks in with STEM for expressing a need in the USA. I would rather see them separated.
Terr_ 11y ago
> (translation, chef, specialty craftsman) [...] I'd imagine we WANT coming in, since they are by definition specialty and non-replaceable. If the ostensible goal of the program is to bring in people for low-supply positions (but short of individual O-1 visas) then isn't salary a reasonable not-too-game-able way to measure that?
- existencebox 11y ago
  Potentially, but at the exclusion as I say of anyone who simply doesn't have those sort of funds. Can a local food business afford 100k+ for a chef? It appears to me that this would disallow many smaller businesses from being able to utilize specialty or cultural labor. Thus my suggestion to address violations of the intent of the law; yes, more game-able, but actually gets at the root of the problem.
- Manishearth 11y ago
  This looks at demand-supply in a vacuum. You also have the other demand-supply curve: will people be willing to pay a huge premium for, say, authentic foreign cuisine? Probably not as much as would be needed to make this system work.

protomyth 11y ago

I am speaking only for STEM workers. That is where the biggest conflict lies. It does seem a bit odd to mix cultural folks in with STEM for expressing a need in the USA. I would rather see them separated.

Terr_ 11y ago

> (translation, chef, specialty craftsman) [...] I'd imagine we WANT coming in, since they are by definition specialty and non-replaceable. If the ostensible goal of the program is to bring in people for low-supply positions (but short of individual O-1 visas) then isn't salary a reasonable not-too-game-able way to measure that?

existencebox 11y ago
Potentially, but at the exclusion as I say of anyone who simply doesn't have those sort of funds. Can a local food business afford 100k+ for a chef? It appears to me that this would disallow many smaller businesses from being able to utilize specialty or cultural labor. Thus my suggestion to address violations of the intent of the law; yes, more game-able, but actually gets at the root of the problem.
Manishearth 11y ago
This looks at demand-supply in a vacuum. You also have the other demand-supply curve: will people be willing to pay a huge premium for, say, authentic foreign cuisine? Probably not as much as would be needed to make this system work.