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I’m curious. HN has largely agreed that the current pandemic showed that remote work is absolutely doable. At the same time, people are claiming that the H1B vi
by addicted 6y ago
I’m curious. HN has largely agreed that the current pandemic showed that remote work is absolutely doable. At the same time, people are claiming that the H1B visa, which allows immigrants to work in the US at largely American salaries, are taking away American jobs.
So the stated solution is to do away with the visa and send those people back to their home countries.
So why does anyone believe that when those people go back to their home countries, their employers would choose to hire someone else instead of keeping the same people hired at a fraction of the cost?
I mean, people seem to think that companies would be unhappy about paying someone 75k/yr who was costing them over 200k/yr (salary + payroll taxes, etc) in the US.
It makes absolutely no sense that the job would go to an American. The likelihood is that the job would remain with the same person but now they would pay taxes and spend dollars in their home countries at a fraction of the cost.
- satya71 6y agoYep. This is already happening. As US becomes a less inviting destination for the best talent, the talent will find home elsewhere. This might be beginning of the end of US tech dominance.
- 2ion 6y agoThat's a long road. Very few tech firms generate the kind of money from tech abroad like many US firms do. You won't be earning 300k in a non-US company in Germany very very likely when looking at similarly-levelled roles (to exclude high-powered roles) compared to the US. You'll be looking at 1/3rd the total comp max in many cases and that'll already be a very good salary in the field. And possibly higher taxes, no effective investment-based retirement schemes, and other disadvantages. US firms have a very long way to fall before they get even the least unattractive, relatively. A young person emigrating from Germany to the US working in a (now) good tech job there making 150,000 plus benefits will be out-earning their age cohort back in Germany 2-3x at the start of their career. Heck even at 120,000 that's likely 2-3x what a somebody with a Bachelor's here would get. That's a tremendous difference no career-focussed person would shy away from wanting.
- Apocryphon 6y agoHigh comp doesn't go nearly as far if the jobs are located in high CoL places with declining QoL.
- SomeoneFromCA 6y agoHaving lived in US for 2 years and having visited Korea and Germany, people US do not even imagine how bad is QoL in US tech hubs, even wit higher wage. I mean Seoul or Berlin is SO much more interesting place than SF Bay. The only places in US I'd consider worth living is Chicago, Boston and probably Seattle.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- satya71 6y agoThe comp only matters if you can actually come to the US and have reasonable life, right? There are over 500,000 people living in the US for a decode or more and still waiting to get permanent residence. They're vulnerable to capricious policies like we saw today. I know many personally who are actively looking at moving away, salaries not withstanding.
- downerending 6y agoFlipping that around, if a company can hire someone for less in a foreign country and get the same result, why bother going through the H1B process? Why the drama? Just do it.
- grad_ml 6y agoNo one knew about pandemic. No one knew we all can work remote. It's a mix day for folks who are cheering up ban. It proves work can be done be remotely. But how remote we be, is yet to be determined.
- SomeoneFromCA 6y agoBecause: a) Outsourcing generally produces lower quality result b) You do not have an H1B leverage.