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It seems like a good solution to H1B abuse is to get rid of the lottery and move towards a bid system, but the "bid" is the foreign worker's salary. This will s

It seems like a good solution to H1B abuse is to get rid of the lottery and move towards a bid system, but the "bid" is the foreign worker's salary. This will solve the wage suppression issue, and will grant access to talent to companies that are willing and able to pay for it.

mc32 8y ago
You can also just tax the difference from prevailing wages; take those taxes and earmark them for training of laid off workers of same industry.
- jedberg 8y ago
  In theory all H1B workers already get “prevailing wage”. It’s part of the law. So the tax would be 0. The issue is that it really isn’t prevailing wage.
- mavelikara 8y ago
  > and earmark them for training of laid off workers of same industry. A portion ($1500) of most H-1B application fees goes towards funding scholarship and training programs. This is called " ACWIA fee" - see [1] and [2] for details. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Competitiveness_and_Workforce_Improvement_Act#Section_414:_New_fees_for_scholarships_and_training https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Competitiveness_and_W... [2]: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Reports%20and%20Studies/h1b05annual_08_7.pdf https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Re...
yanslookup 8y ago
"They" are already designing this and it'll make the problem worse not better. They will keep the 4 DoL skill levels used for H1B and put caps at each level. The extra twist is it will be in the shape of a pyramid where there are fewer highly skill slots but enough for the Google's, and then a lot more for the lower levels. So that company that was continually denied their $55k level 4 "senior dev" in Dallas in the lottery is now high enough in the auction to win.
- stale2002 8y ago
  Then don't adjust it based on location. Highest salary wins. No low level people would get it, as it would be bidding accross the board. If you aren't willing to pay that scientist 150K, then you lose the bid to the software engineer hired in the Bay area.
  - seventhtiger 8y ago
    I heard this proposal a lot, and I think it's very SF/tech centered. Big tech and finance would buy every visa and suck all the talent from the world. But sometimes the best value for the host country is to get an immigrant doctor that's willing to go to a rural area for less pay than the big tech engineers.
    - akavi 8y ago
      These are orthogonal issues. It is in America's interest to suck up economically productive people from all over the world. This is solved by the wage lottery system It is also in America's interest to increase the number of skilled service providers in rural areas. One policy to solve this might be solved by targeted wage subsidies that are tied to working in certain areas. There's no need to couple these orthogonal issues together. It doesn't matter whether the rural doctors are native or immigrants. That said, the policies compose well: Wage subsidy + actual wage might win the visa auction, modulo the quantity of subsidy and the demand for medicine as a skill set.
  - yanslookup 8y ago
    This is the same system with the same problem. Yes highest salary wins but the ultimate goal is to increase the cap. If the cap is increased to 300k per year and they switch to an auction, you are going to get more 55k senior engineers in dallas and they get to say they fixed the problem. Really, they don't care what happens as long as the cap is increased.

mc32 8y ago

You can also just tax the difference from prevailing wages; take those taxes and earmark them for training of laid off workers of same industry.

jedberg 8y ago
In theory all H1B workers already get “prevailing wage”. It’s part of the law. So the tax would be 0. The issue is that it really isn’t prevailing wage.
mavelikara 8y ago
> and earmark them for training of laid off workers of same industry. A portion ($1500) of most H-1B application fees goes towards funding scholarship and training programs. This is called " ACWIA fee" - see [1] and [2] for details. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Competitiveness_and_Workforce_Improvement_Act#Section_414:_New_fees_for_scholarships_and_training https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Competitiveness_and_W... [2]: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Reports%20and%20Studies/h1b05annual_08_7.pdf https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Re...

yanslookup 8y ago

"They" are already designing this and it'll make the problem worse not better. They will keep the 4 DoL skill levels used for H1B and put caps at each level. The extra twist is it will be in the shape of a pyramid where there are fewer highly skill slots but enough for the Google's, and then a lot more for the lower levels. So that company that was continually denied their $55k level 4 "senior dev" in Dallas in the lottery is now high enough in the auction to win.

stale2002 8y ago
Then don't adjust it based on location. Highest salary wins. No low level people would get it, as it would be bidding accross the board. If you aren't willing to pay that scientist 150K, then you lose the bid to the software engineer hired in the Bay area.
- seventhtiger 8y ago
  I heard this proposal a lot, and I think it's very SF/tech centered. Big tech and finance would buy every visa and suck all the talent from the world. But sometimes the best value for the host country is to get an immigrant doctor that's willing to go to a rural area for less pay than the big tech engineers.
  - akavi 8y ago
    These are orthogonal issues. It is in America's interest to suck up economically productive people from all over the world. This is solved by the wage lottery system It is also in America's interest to increase the number of skilled service providers in rural areas. One policy to solve this might be solved by targeted wage subsidies that are tied to working in certain areas. There's no need to couple these orthogonal issues together. It doesn't matter whether the rural doctors are native or immigrants. That said, the policies compose well: Wage subsidy + actual wage might win the visa auction, modulo the quantity of subsidy and the demand for medicine as a skill set.
- yanslookup 8y ago
  This is the same system with the same problem. Yes highest salary wins but the ultimate goal is to increase the cap. If the cap is increased to 300k per year and they switch to an auction, you are going to get more 55k senior engineers in dallas and they get to say they fixed the problem. Really, they don't care what happens as long as the cap is increased.