Posted on 10/25/2014 8:14:02 AM PDT by Hoodat
A Silicon Valley tech company that reportedly made $200 million last quarter was importing foreign workers from India and paying them $1.21 an hour.
According to the Labor Department, "about eight employees of Fremont-based Electronics For Imaging [EFI] were flown in from India and worked 120-hour weeks to help with the installation of computers at the company's headquarters." NBC Bay Area noted that "the employees were paid their regular hourly wage in Indian rupees, which translated to $1.21."
EFI claimed it "unintentionally overlooked laws that require even foreign employees to be paid based on local US standards." The company reportedly must pay "$40,000 in back wages to the employees" and was fined $3,500.
According to NBC Bay Area, another tech company last year "faced similar charges and was fined for underpaying employees from Mexico an hourly wage of $2.66," and "federal officials said both cases are particularly egregious, given the booming labor market and the wealth in Silicon Valley."
Even though there is a surplus of American high-tech workers, high-tech companies continue to clamor for more guest-worker visas to lower the wages of their workers. Companies like Microsoft have lobbied for massive increases in foreign workers even while laying off 18,000 American workers.
Importing foreign workers pushes wages downward for jobs that are available, which is why H-1B expert and Howard University professor Ron Hira has said that massive increases in guest-worker visas will "cut off" opportunities for more Americans to enter the middle class via tech jobs. Hira has repeatedly emphasized that "people who come from working-class backgrounds" have used technology jobs as a "way of getting into the middle class and the professional class," as Breitbart News has reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
If they find a bank shafting people a buck a month on mortgages they could end up with a billion dollar settlement... but in this case a $3500 fine. crazy
| $40,000.00 | total compensation | ||
| $7.25 | federal minimum wage | ||
| $1.21 | wages paid | ||
| $6.04 | difference | ||
| 6622.52 | hours $40k / $6.04 compensation | ||
| 827.81 | hours per each of eight employees | ||
| 120.00 | hours worked per week | ||
| 6.90 | weeks worked | ||
you still have to capture those wage differences, >8 hours, > 12 hours.
Given 17 hour days, it came in at 3 weeks.
and, about $45,000 in total wages, $40,000 was paid in back wages.
Yes, I hadn’t calculated in the overtime.
It could be they didn’t require compensation at overtime rates.
It is also notable that the $1.21 times the 6621 hours worked, would result in roughly $8,000 dollars, plus the $40,000 totaling up to around $48,000 dollars, not $45,000.
You’re right. The numbers do skew...
120 hours a week? I’m not buying it. Sounds as if the company was providing them housing.
Other than excessive hours, how is there a problem with their pay? In that, if I work for an American company that sends me to France or Germany or India for three or six weeks on an assignment, I’m not paid at the prevailing wage in that country. I’m paid American dollars on my American salary and the billing from the American company to the French or German or Indian company is based on dollar-value not local value.
It is a violation of US law.
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