According to the editorial: "Salaries in computer- and math-related fields for workers with a college degree rose only 4.5 percent between 2000 and 2011. If the

According to the editorial: "Salaries in computer- and math-related fields for workers with a college degree rose only 4.5 percent between 2000 and 2011. If these skills are so valuable and in such short supply, salaries should at least keep pace with the tech companies’ profits, which have exploded." This is where a citation would be helpful. I might click through to Mr Eisenbrey's website a little later to see if I can find one. "And I know many startups that are eager to get visas for people they want to hire, and would have zero interest in having employees that felt trapped at their company." I agree. I think that there are two alternate universes to the H1B. Many of the good startups and large company have no interest in this kind of power over other people's lives - they use the system because it's the only way to get someone they think is talented into the country. They are often shocked to hear about the extent of the abuse in the underbelly of this visa. There seems to be universal agreement that the best approach would be to provide the visa or green card directly to the immigrant, with full mobility. Many of the easily circumvented protections (such as the prevailing wage requirement) would be unnecessary if the worker is allowed to quit his or her job without jeopardizing residency rights. If 90% of PhD grads who want to stay are finding a way to do so through a patchwork of (somewhat indentured) work visas anyway, why not just grant them direct residency rights? Unfortunately, there is so much bitter disagreement on other issues that it is hard to make progress on the areas of common ground. On another front - I have linked in the past to a RAND study concluding that the American aversion to PhD programs "in science" is rational and market driven. http://www.rand.org/pubs/issue_papers/IP241.html http://www.rand.org/pubs/issue_papers/IP241.html This paper convinced me that we probably shouldn't base public policy on the notion of a general shortage of scientists. I'm not saying we shouldn't grant residency rights (I actually think we should place a greater emphasis on skilled immigration in general), I just don't think we should do so on the notion that there is a shortage in these fields, as the evidence doesn't support that claim. The RAND study lumps together such diverse fields that it may not be useful in evaluating the needs of high tech employers (computer science may have as much in common with marine biology as it does with non-science humanities fields in terms of the overall job market). However the recent Senate proposal isn't about the narrow band of degrees related to silicon valley, it is for all grad degrees in "STEM", so in this case, I think the data in the RAND report is relevant here.