'3 headed monster': Expert reveals how H1B visa program is crushing American college graduates

Fox News ^ | 10/27/2025 | Andrew Mark Miller

[marcusmaximus]

As the Trump administration makes moves to change the H-1B visa program to benefit American-born workers, Skillstorm CEO Justin Vianello backed those efforts in an interview with Fox News Digital while offering his expertise on other issues that need to be addressed with work visas.

Vianello told Fox News Digital that one of the "biggest challenges" with the current H1B system is the "impact" on college hiring, particularly with computer science and computer engineering graduates.

Vianello explained that the unemployment rate for college graduates with those degrees is significantly higher than the average for all college graduates

-snip-

Vianello went on to explain that data shows H-1B visa holders are paid "significantly less" than their counterparts doing equivalent IT roles which gives them a leg up with employers who are looking to pay less.

"I think it gets a little more broadly than that," Vianello said."In addition to competing with H1V visa holders, college graduates, especially in IT, are also competing with OPT visa holders. This is optional practical training, basically an extension of the F1 visa, which is a student visa, which allows you, if you're a STEM graduate, to work in the U.S. for three years following your graduation."

"Now, the OPT visa holders don't pay Social Security or Medicare taxes, so they're automatically 15% cheaper, and they are typically paid 42% less than their U S counterparts. So as a college grad, you're fighting this three-headed monster. You're graduating with student debt, you've got H1B visa holders and OPT Visa holders who have the ability to take your job and cost an employer significantly less, and then you're competing with the third one which is the ability of an employer to simply offshore that work."

---

TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: antifrstooge; gayforindia; h1b; h1btruth; hireamerican; india; indians

[DennisR]

Yes!

[grey_whiskers]

https://revolver.news/2025/10/federal-express-collierville-tn-great-overnight-replacement/

[grey_whiskers]

No, because then it’s still a wash, troll.

Eliminate the program altogether and pay reparations, retroactively, to all the white men who got screwed by it.

[grey_whiskers]

Get stuffed, troll-boi.

[grey_whiskers]

OK, now *that* was funny.

[marcusmaximus]

new CEO Raj Subramaniam

[yesthatjallen]

In the late 90's, I worked at a university library.

I was talking to a student who organized a tech job fair. He said none of the big name companies (microsoft, apple, cisco, etc) sent representatives.

Tech companies have been passing over American tech graduates for decades.

Why pay first world wages when you can pay third world wages?

[Alberta's Child]

I can speak from personal experience. In my previous life in corporate management we hired exactly one OPT-H1B visa candidate in 10 years. It was a young STEM professional who had worked as an intern for our best client.

We negotiated a perfectly reasonable salary with him, only to be told by our HR people that we had to pay him 15% more than he was asking for -- because the rules in place required us to pay no less than the median salary for his job title.

Your mileage may vary.

[ek_hornbeck]

My understanding is that these visa holders cannot be paid less than the median salary for their industry and job title, based on education level.

This is true according to the regulations. However, companies routinely circumvent the regulations by creating a new job title (for more or less the same job description), with a correspondingly much lower salary. That little accounting/administrative sleight of hand is allows them to replace a 100K per year American tech worker with a 40-50K a year H1B worker from India or China.

[Liz]

These visa holders cannot be paid less than the median salary for their industry and job title, based on education level is true according to the regulations.

However, companies routinely circumvent the regulations
<><>by creating a new job title (for more or less the same job description),
<><>the newly created title has a correspondingly much lower salary.
<><>the accounting/administrative sleight of hand allows them
<><>a) to replace a 100K per year American tech worker
<><> b) with a 40-50K a year H1B worker from India or China.

[kiryandil]

OK, Brain.

I don’t even understand what your post means.