Editorial: H-1B visas a boon [BS!] to aging U.S. work force. Someone tell Trump.

San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | NOV. 19, 2019

[Vigilanteman]

The Boston Marathon Bomber was a visa lottery winner. I believe the guy who shot up Trolley Square in Salt Lake City (before an off duty cop gunned him down) was one as well.

[Regulator]

Two points...

The racists at the Union Tribune wouldn’t be saying this if the H1Bs where white

And

They wouldn’t be saying it if the H1Bs were coming to take journalist jobs, they’d be rioting

[Vigilanteman]

I spent 14 years working as an H1B equivalent in Japan. They have a novel way of policing it for abuse. The workers are relatively easy to hire, but the companies are required to pay them AT LEAST a 10% (or higher) premium wage. So they actually raise the wage levels for the industry and ensure that the Japanese employers hire the cream of the crop. They also ensure that the rising wage levels attract more Japanese graduates to those jobs.

Eventually, you become so Japanized (as I did) that you are no longer worth the premium and the last company to hire you is required to move you home. This was not a bad fate for me because my older children were in high school by then and it was necessary for their Americanization to return.

[DPMD]

The sole appeal of the H-1B visa is its requirement that the visa holder be paid by his home country employer in wages that are prevalent in that country. And employers have always made herculean efforts to avoid any serious effort to hire Americans, or even to properly announce job opportunities. And some of the worst offenders are private immigration attorneys advising them.

[DPMD]

Struggle? No. The struggle is how to avoid widespread, legitimate announcements of the job opportunities without making it obvious, in order to disingenuously claim that no American workers are available to fill the need. But that’s why God invented private immigration attorneys.

[bkopto]

the H-1B visa program has let companies temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations requiring specialized skills and a bachelor’s degree and who will work for $15/hr.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I am with you on this program being abused, but let’s remain credible by sticking to the facts.

Someone being paid $15/hour will NOT be eligible for an H1B visa. No way, no how. The government sets an LCA prevailing wage for each occupation in each geographic region of the country. You either prove to the government that you are meeting that number when you file, or the visa is not getting approved. There is no LCA for any region or occupation that is as low as $15/hour.

Now, you can argue that the government is still setting these LCA wages below what the market will bear, which is acting as a drag to hold down wages overall. And that employers are playing cute games, submitting a wage at just above LCA but then making the employee “buy” his benefits at inflated rates, etc.

But let’s remain factual to remain credible. You have to pay substantially more than $15 to get one of these things.

[Buckeye McFrog]

The sole appeal of the H-1B visa is its requirement that the visa holder be paid by his home country employer in wages that are prevalent in that country.

Not true. The Federal Govt. sets an LCA prevailing wage for each occupation in each geographic region. They are paid in the US, in dollars. It is true that holders of L1/B1 visas get paid in their home country in that currency, which is a whole 'nother scam deserving of its own post.

And employers have always made herculean efforts to avoid any serious effort to hire Americans, or even to properly announce job opportunities. And some of the worst offenders are private immigration attorneys advising them.

That is certainly true. Famously an immigration lawyer from the Pittsburgh law firm Cohen & Grigsby caught caught on-camera talking about how to do this at a seminar. He was a YouTube sensation for some time.

[Buckeye McFrog]

The visa lottery is the STOOOOOOPIDEST program in US Government history, and that’s really saying something.

I once spoke to a guy who came over from Ireland after winning the visa lottery. He told me he had put is name in after being dared to do so by his buddies in a pub. When he won he thought “eh, may as well go, why not?”

THAT is not the sort of motivation you want from people coming here.

[bkopto]

Yeah, I was being hyperbolic. But thanks.

[dhs12345]

It is a huge nut to crack. Too many people and organizations prefer the status quo.

[CodeToad]

“Wages in the tech sector are about the same they were 20 year ago - NOT adjusted for inflation! If there were a true labor shortage wages would be up 100% over 20 years.”

You nailed it. Wages for IT in 1995 are the same as today in 2019.

[central_va]

You nailed it. Wages for IT in 1995 are the same as today in 2019.

Think about the inflation since then. Wages are down 50-60%. WHAT DANG LABOR SHORTAGE???????????????????!!!!!!!!

[Buckeye McFrog]

It’s another reason I maintain that the F1 OPT program is a far bigger problem than H1B. Those people really CAN work for $15 an hour if they want to.

[CodeToad]

Exactly. Inflation has eaten most of what was the salaries in 1995. We do NOT have a labor shortage.