3 ms·

What is your opinion on Trump's new H1-B policy? Will this hurt innovation as a result of lack of access to talented engineers?

tchaffee 9y ago
Not a lawyer and I am also interested in the answer. As a developer though I often wonder if there is a lack of talented engineers. It seems like companies want engineers for a big discount. The US immigration system, since it ties you to one employer, seems to be almost indentured servitude. If you get fired you lose your Visa. I am not anti-immigration. But I would like to see immigrant salaries the same as or very close to local worker salaries - that would be a true indication that you cannot find talent elsewhere. And I would like to see immigrants able to move from employer to employer. Good question, and I hope you don't mind me hopping on this with my $0.02.
- princekolt 9y ago
  I think talented foreigner employees will always have higher salaries (on average) because 1. it is a true pain in the ass to move countries, and 2. in some countries that's actually a requirement (like the Netherlands, for example).
  - tchaffee 9y ago
    Not in the US. My experience is that immigrants, for example from India, are grossly underpaid. This would be for the software engineering area, and I've seen this over a two decade span.
    - 0xcafecafe 9y ago
      Not disagreeing with what you say but there are people on both sides of the coin. For instance, myself and my peers (Indian graduates from a top 5 school in US) are extremely well compensated by our respective companies (well beyond the highest wage level defined by DOL). But due to the antiquated immigration system, everyone gets pooled into one bucket which results in decade+ long wait for a green card. I agree with you that the salary requirements need to be fixed and revised. Also, the allocation of the green cards can be done in descending order of the compensation of the employee instead of the country of birth/filing date system.
- sbaus387 9y ago
  I believe this is handled by the concept of the prevailing wage. I'm not suggesting it is well handled but in theory, you do have to earn at the level or higher dictated by the prevailing wage for your position. If I'm not mistaken, there is an effort to push either this number higher or some other general salary requirement to around $100k/yr. I'm sorry I don't have precise information here. Having prevailing wages of ~40k in areas where some people are paid >70k is probably a reason why some companies can hire below 'market' prices.
  - proberts 9y ago
    There is no question that USCIS is more inclined to approve H-1B petitions where the offered wage is above the so-called Level 1 wage, which is the lowest acceptable wage in the DOL wage database.
    - tchaffee 9y ago
      Not sure what USCIS stands for but I think DOL is Department of Labor. I did a search here: http://www.flcdatacenter.com/OesQuickResults.aspx?code=15-1131&area=41940&year=18&source=1 http://www.flcdatacenter.com/OesQuickResults.aspx?code=15-11... Which is the Level 1 wage of a computer programmer in Silicon Valley. $55,203... my jaw drops. Clearly companies in the US are using immigrants for cheap labor. This hurts US workers, and the immigrants are being taken advantage of too. Although to someone from a developing country, that salary might look like a dream. I'm still pro-immigrant, but we've got to get the base salaries in line with average salaries of local talent.

tchaffee 9y ago

Not a lawyer and I am also interested in the answer. As a developer though I often wonder if there is a lack of talented engineers. It seems like companies want engineers for a big discount. The US immigration system, since it ties you to one employer, seems to be almost indentured servitude. If you get fired you lose your Visa. I am not anti-immigration. But I would like to see immigrant salaries the same as or very close to local worker salaries - that would be a true indication that you cannot find talent elsewhere. And I would like to see immigrants able to move from employer to employer. Good question, and I hope you don't mind me hopping on this with my $0.02.

princekolt 9y ago
I think talented foreigner employees will always have higher salaries (on average) because 1. it is a true pain in the ass to move countries, and 2. in some countries that's actually a requirement (like the Netherlands, for example).
- tchaffee 9y ago
  Not in the US. My experience is that immigrants, for example from India, are grossly underpaid. This would be for the software engineering area, and I've seen this over a two decade span.
  - 0xcafecafe 9y ago
    Not disagreeing with what you say but there are people on both sides of the coin. For instance, myself and my peers (Indian graduates from a top 5 school in US) are extremely well compensated by our respective companies (well beyond the highest wage level defined by DOL). But due to the antiquated immigration system, everyone gets pooled into one bucket which results in decade+ long wait for a green card. I agree with you that the salary requirements need to be fixed and revised. Also, the allocation of the green cards can be done in descending order of the compensation of the employee instead of the country of birth/filing date system.
sbaus387 9y ago
I believe this is handled by the concept of the prevailing wage. I'm not suggesting it is well handled but in theory, you do have to earn at the level or higher dictated by the prevailing wage for your position. If I'm not mistaken, there is an effort to push either this number higher or some other general salary requirement to around $100k/yr. I'm sorry I don't have precise information here. Having prevailing wages of ~40k in areas where some people are paid >70k is probably a reason why some companies can hire below 'market' prices.
- proberts 9y ago
  There is no question that USCIS is more inclined to approve H-1B petitions where the offered wage is above the so-called Level 1 wage, which is the lowest acceptable wage in the DOL wage database.
  - tchaffee 9y ago
    Not sure what USCIS stands for but I think DOL is Department of Labor. I did a search here: http://www.flcdatacenter.com/OesQuickResults.aspx?code=15-1131&area=41940&year=18&source=1 http://www.flcdatacenter.com/OesQuickResults.aspx?code=15-11... Which is the Level 1 wage of a computer programmer in Silicon Valley. $55,203... my jaw drops. Clearly companies in the US are using immigrants for cheap labor. This hurts US workers, and the immigrants are being taken advantage of too. Although to someone from a developing country, that salary might look like a dream. I'm still pro-immigrant, but we've got to get the base salaries in line with average salaries of local talent.