Posted on 02/02/2017 1:45:39 PM PST by Jyotishi
LOOKING INWARD ON H1-B
Indian IT firms must ramp up salary structures
The odd thing about the H1-B reform Bill introduced in the US House of Representatives is the person who introduced it. Zoe Lofgren is the Democratic Party Congresswoman representing California's 19th Congressional District, an area that covers most of the city of San Jose. As any visitor to the city can testify, it is not a white-majority constituency. Indeed, a majority of the population in the area is of Hispanic origin, but almost a quarter of the population is Asian. For the most part, those are Indians particularly from southern states. San Jose remains one of the most popular cities for Indians to settle in the United States. So the head-scratching question that some have asked is: Why would a representative from such an area propose a Bill that will impact some of her own constituents? However, that misses one simple point.
Many of the Indians who settled in the United States between the 1970s and 1980s have children now who are effectively priced out of the market by newer waves of engineers and software writers from India, particularly those who travel on the H1-B work visa. The current salary cap on the H1-B work visa introduced in 1989 and unchanged since, is $60,000, which, thanks to the depreciation of the rupee since then, remains extremely attractive for Indian information technology workers who readily go for on-site projects to the US. The need to send lower-wage computer engineers to assist on on-site project implementation coupled with the lower costs of outsourced project development in India over the last two and a half decades has enabled the creation of Indian IT services giants. By keeping their costs a lot lower than their foreign competition while delivering attractive margins to investors, Indian IT services companies have for a while been eating their cake while having it.
However, while unemployment is not a problem in the United States, particularly in the IT industry, there was a growing clamour to plug this wage loophole for a while. Indian IT companies have by far and away been the biggest recipients of H1-B visa allocations through the 'lottery' system. While American software and online firms such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook have also been built on the backs of Indians -- look no further than the fact that Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella are also immigrants from India -- they have tended to use Indian students who went to study in America rather than to take recourse to short-term employees.
The modifications to these Bills were a long time coming and while Indian IT firms have lobbied intensely on Capitol Hill to prevent this for a decade, in the Trump-age it is almost certain that there will be bipartisan support for the Bill. The higher salary cap will mean that while Indians will still go to the US to work, they will likely be more highly-skilled and thus better paid. Indian IT faces an existential crisis and to resolve that, they need to look inward.
News from idealmedia.com
Just curious as I recently worked with a handful of brand new H1Bs. I know they are in the $60-70K pay range. Would they be affected by imposition of a new law?
The real scam is that all these H1-B companies grew because American companies laid off their AMERICAN IT guys, especially the more senior ones. Re-orgs, etc.
Topping on the cake, they made the laid off guys TRAIN the cheap replacements if they wanted their Severance package.
What planet is this guy from?
When I was working as a programmer, I talked with the wife of one Indian H1B. She told me that they worked her husband 70-80 hours a week, but only billed the client for 40, getting around the wage cap.
I told that to some big-name college economics prof and he said he didn't believe me as "it was against the law". Mother of God, what naivete.
The company I work for laid-off hundreds of American workers and imported IT from India. They also set up companies off shore in India to do the projects. Since I am in my sixties now, they have just took everything I previously worked on and sent it off shore. I am now a help desk person supporting new IT software that I was never trained for. It is a job and I have tried to go elsewhere, but I am too old.
Our Indian contractor heard it was being raised to over 100k.
Perhaps the answer to your question is here:
Breakdown of H-1B reform Bill & How will it affect India
http://www.kanthalaraghu.com/2017/01/breakdown-of-h1b-reform-bill.html
Exactly!
As you know, it was and still is a standard practice to get rid of direct AMERICAN employees. Especially older, more highly paid workers. “Re-org” scam to protect them from age discrimination suits.
The claim is there is a lack of AMERICAN talent.
That is a LIE.
I would like to know at what point this crap becomes illegal.
The law was written so that as long as the H1B visa holder makes the current minimum (about $70K I believe), the visa cannot be withdrawn even if the application fraudulently certified the need for an H1B visa holder.
We have the best government money can buy.
I hope someone recorded or took notes:
a) racial discrimination;
b)age discrimination;
c)national origin discrimination
Of course wearing a hoodie, waiting in the executive parking lot and putting a bullet through the exec's head might get their attention more quickly.
Breakdown of H-1B reform Bill & How will it affect India
Thanks for info. This may be an act of Karma. One of the Indian H1Bs was posting and continues to post Anti-Trump comments on FB. I hope he gets booted.
It's being raised to $130,000 in the current bill.
The old minimum was $60,000. For some reason, the author called that the “salary cap.”
The $130,000 is a good start, but I predict the new bill will be stuffed with exemptions paid for by Silicon Valley “campaign donations.”
Many years ago I worked in a state employment office and I was assigned to review companies’ applications to bring workers over to the US. Companies who wanted to bring in foreign workers had to list the job first with the state employment agency. It was a total scam then. The job descriptions were written so narrowly that you could tell it would apply to almost no American job seeker. On top of that, the salaries were ridiculously low. The only people willing to work for those wages are people from 3rd world dumps.
The problem is that the argument has been successfully framed as needing workers for new jobs for which there are no AMERICANS available. Therefore a critical need.
The truth is it is a SCAM to hire cheap, inferior, Independent Contractors to replace American IT Experts, especially older employees.
Which brings up the additional scam of “Independent Contractors”.
Trump needs to understand the damage the loose interpretation of “Independent Contractor” status is used to replace direct employees. There have been major law suits by cable installers, delivery drivers, service personnel, etc.
The IRS has gone after some examples, but the penalties and fines are so weak, it is financially worth it if they can get away with it for a few years.
“Independent Contractor” classification of employees has been an almost invisible rape of American workers, State taxes, Federal taxes, and Social Security.
“Of course wearing a hoodie, waiting in the executive parking lot and putting a bullet through the exec’s head might get their attention more quickly.”
Not that anyone would recommend such a course of action or be happy if it did.
L
Sometimes one gets a glimpse of the suppressed RAGE that is so close to exploding.
Trump is the bobbling, bouncing cap on the lid of the pressure cooker. Lord help us if he is made non-functional.
Post in haste, repent at leisure.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.