4 ms·

> cheap labor for corporate America On H1b I make 400k in an industry that has 120k avg pay for my role. Tell me more about cheap H1b labor

nopenopenopeno 5y ago
Are you trying to suggest American wages have not been stagnated for 40 years? What is your argument?
- dane-pgp 5y ago
  Presumably the argument is that some percentage of immigrants are paid above average, so it's not the case that all corporations only want immigrants in order to pay lower wages. It could instead be that there aren't enough people within the country who have the skills to do the high wage jobs (as presumably the locals would happily take those jobs if they were available, but might refuse to do the low wage jobs that immigrants are willing to do). You're right that this isn't evidence that wages haven't stagnated, but similarly you haven't produced any evidence that immigration has caused wage stagnation, other than a supposed correlation between the (generally accepted) wage stagnation over the last 40 years on the one hand, and on the other hand, a vague implication that immigration suddenly started 40 years ago and has since that time consistently and coincidentally been just enough to cancel out any wage growth.
  - thumbsup-_- 5y ago
    +1. While some companies might be abusing the system and using it to get cheap foreign labor, the US also gets highly talented foreigners to work for its companies through this immigration system. Companies pay these talented people exceptional compensation because they want top competitive people to work for them. It is hard for them to find a large pool of similar talent locally (not that American workers aren't talented, but it's just that as skill and talent increase, the pool keeps on getting smaller). Highly skilled foreign workers are America's competitive advantage to the world. Now other countries realize it, which is why countries like Canada reformed their immigration system a few years back to invite skilled foreign workers by offering them permanent residence. Canada is now poaching people San Francisco bay area, offering them PR even if they don't make the cut-off in their point-based immigration system because they know that if they want to be the tech leader in world, they need this foreign talent pool.

nopenopenopeno 5y ago

Are you trying to suggest American wages have not been stagnated for 40 years? What is your argument?

dane-pgp 5y ago
Presumably the argument is that some percentage of immigrants are paid above average, so it's not the case that all corporations only want immigrants in order to pay lower wages. It could instead be that there aren't enough people within the country who have the skills to do the high wage jobs (as presumably the locals would happily take those jobs if they were available, but might refuse to do the low wage jobs that immigrants are willing to do). You're right that this isn't evidence that wages haven't stagnated, but similarly you haven't produced any evidence that immigration has caused wage stagnation, other than a supposed correlation between the (generally accepted) wage stagnation over the last 40 years on the one hand, and on the other hand, a vague implication that immigration suddenly started 40 years ago and has since that time consistently and coincidentally been just enough to cancel out any wage growth.
- thumbsup-_- 5y ago
  +1. While some companies might be abusing the system and using it to get cheap foreign labor, the US also gets highly talented foreigners to work for its companies through this immigration system. Companies pay these talented people exceptional compensation because they want top competitive people to work for them. It is hard for them to find a large pool of similar talent locally (not that American workers aren't talented, but it's just that as skill and talent increase, the pool keeps on getting smaller). Highly skilled foreign workers are America's competitive advantage to the world. Now other countries realize it, which is why countries like Canada reformed their immigration system a few years back to invite skilled foreign workers by offering them permanent residence. Canada is now poaching people San Francisco bay area, offering them PR even if they don't make the cut-off in their point-based immigration system because they know that if they want to be the tech leader in world, they need this foreign talent pool.