5 ms·

You could index wage to some cost-of-living metric set by the Department of Labor. That would control for regional differences between company. It'd also furthe

You could index wage to some cost-of-living metric set by the Department of Labor. That would control for regional differences between company. It'd also further incentivize "outsourcing" to domestic locales with cheaper costs of living. That's arguably a good thing since places with cheaper costs of living would benefit more from the workforce bump than those with high costs.

luckydata 10y ago
The Bay Area could truly benefit by some reduction in the H1B workforce. The influx of foreign workers contributes greatly to the housing shortage that's hurting everyone right now. p.s.: Just in case you're wondering, I'm an immigrant and I left the bay area exactly for the reasons I'm highlighting.
- redditmigrant 10y ago
  Bay area's housing shortage is entirely self inflicted by its residents who refuse to allow more housing to be built. All this to maintain some arbitrary idea of character. A character that is frozen at some random point in time. There is no good reason for most of the bay area to be strip malls apartments and 2 story apartment complexes. There are more than enough examples of cities(Barcelona, Paris) with character, history and more vertical housing.
  - luckydata 10y ago
    Preaching to the choir, but reality is it won't change anytime soon. I voted with my feet and left, I miss the area but I couldn't justify anymore how much of a hassle it was living there lately.
- dntrkv 10y ago
  Do you have any stats to back that claim up?
  - luckydata 10y ago
    yes. In 2015 it was more than 50k people. Even if they all share rooms, it's a lot of demand on an housing stock that grows slowly.
    - luckydata 10y ago
      I forgot to add a link: http://projects.sfchronicle.com/2016/visas/ http://projects.sfchronicle.com/2016/visas/
    - luckydata 10y ago
      One more datapoint: between 2013 and 2014 the net change in population in the bay area was 100k, we can assume things are more or less the same as before meaning that H1B immigration counts for ~50% of the total change. If you can find more recent numbers (took me 30 seconds to find the links I added) then we can redo the math and see if there's major problems with my statements, but I really don't see how that could be the case. https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/03/26/youre-not-crazy-the-bay-area-is-getting-way-more-crowded/ https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/03/26/youre-not-crazy-the-bay...
    - mavelikara 10y ago
      From your link: > About 10 percent of the LCAs approved last year, or 53,500, were for jobs in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. But, it also adds that: > More than one employee can be attached to an LCA, and there’s no limit on how many a company can submit. As a result, the number of LCAs accepted by the Department of Labor often far exceeds the number of H-1B visas issued. Furthermore, when a person on H-1B already living in SJ or SV change jobs, they file a new LCA. This gets counted in the 53,500 number from the article. Thus, IMO, it is incorrect to claim that "more than 50k people" moved into Bay Area on H-1B in 2015. Please correct me if I am wrong.
      - luckydata 10y ago
        I think it's adventurous to think the number would much lower. Let's say that the number is 50% lower, that brings us to 25k new individuals just from the H1B program alone. You're also skipping over the fact that H1B people have families and tend to bring family members into the area. Overall I'm comfortable to say the number is still probably in the right ballpark until I'm shown evidence of the contrary.

luckydata 10y ago

The Bay Area could truly benefit by some reduction in the H1B workforce. The influx of foreign workers contributes greatly to the housing shortage that's hurting everyone right now. p.s.: Just in case you're wondering, I'm an immigrant and I left the bay area exactly for the reasons I'm highlighting.

redditmigrant 10y ago
Bay area's housing shortage is entirely self inflicted by its residents who refuse to allow more housing to be built. All this to maintain some arbitrary idea of character. A character that is frozen at some random point in time. There is no good reason for most of the bay area to be strip malls apartments and 2 story apartment complexes. There are more than enough examples of cities(Barcelona, Paris) with character, history and more vertical housing.
- luckydata 10y ago
  Preaching to the choir, but reality is it won't change anytime soon. I voted with my feet and left, I miss the area but I couldn't justify anymore how much of a hassle it was living there lately.
dntrkv 10y ago
Do you have any stats to back that claim up?
- luckydata 10y ago
  yes. In 2015 it was more than 50k people. Even if they all share rooms, it's a lot of demand on an housing stock that grows slowly.
  - luckydata 10y ago
    I forgot to add a link: http://projects.sfchronicle.com/2016/visas/ http://projects.sfchronicle.com/2016/visas/
  - luckydata 10y ago
    One more datapoint: between 2013 and 2014 the net change in population in the bay area was 100k, we can assume things are more or less the same as before meaning that H1B immigration counts for ~50% of the total change. If you can find more recent numbers (took me 30 seconds to find the links I added) then we can redo the math and see if there's major problems with my statements, but I really don't see how that could be the case. https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/03/26/youre-not-crazy-the-bay-area-is-getting-way-more-crowded/ https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/03/26/youre-not-crazy-the-bay...
  - mavelikara 10y ago
    From your link: > About 10 percent of the LCAs approved last year, or 53,500, were for jobs in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. But, it also adds that: > More than one employee can be attached to an LCA, and there’s no limit on how many a company can submit. As a result, the number of LCAs accepted by the Department of Labor often far exceeds the number of H-1B visas issued. Furthermore, when a person on H-1B already living in SJ or SV change jobs, they file a new LCA. This gets counted in the 53,500 number from the article. Thus, IMO, it is incorrect to claim that "more than 50k people" moved into Bay Area on H-1B in 2015. Please correct me if I am wrong.
    - luckydata 10y ago
      I think it's adventurous to think the number would much lower. Let's say that the number is 50% lower, that brings us to 25k new individuals just from the H1B program alone. You're also skipping over the fact that H1B people have families and tend to bring family members into the area. Overall I'm comfortable to say the number is still probably in the right ballpark until I'm shown evidence of the contrary.