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Comment by yummyfajitas | Hacker News Reader

Some context/theorizing about Edison, NJ. Edison is a largely Indian town. In particular, it attracts many people who don't want personal exposure to the US or non-Indians - such a lifestyle would be difficult anywhere besides Edison or Jersey City. They are only in the US to earn USD.

My theory as to why Edison wages are so low: most of the Edison companies are low end bodyshops - if you need a warm body with J2EE, they will give you a warm body. Their competitive advantage is that the Edison guys they hire never talk to non-Indians [1] and never discover they are ridiculously underpaid.

Incidentally, the food in Edison is fantastic. Jersey City also has good low end food (e.g., dosas), though nothing great at the higher end.

[1] It's not even an Indian nationalism thing - many of them avoid socializing with Indians from a different state/ethnicity. I get dirty looks when they see me with an Indian girl.

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another perspective as someone who frequented edison(indian food - oak tree road!) and lived near by - there's a swarm of small bodyshops, who pay bit more than market rate.My experience is that this "market rate" as per stats is what newcomers get for the first couple of years. (these newcomers are typically not well todo back home.)As these 'new' H1 hires gain market experience, they either negotiate or move on to some other small bodyshop. The big corps like Oracle don't pay as much for similar roles. As the o.p rightly discovered, most commute to NYC (go to edison station at 7.30am). (I don't know if this may have lead few banks to move their dev/it operations to NJ:) ). I know of some companies that didn't pay med insurance for more than 2 years. Few years ago, a top guy of a similar bodyshop was sent to prison for 'buy a green card' scheme he employed using employment immigration loop holes. Every year there are few companies that are in news for the wrong reasons. From what I saw, the non-passionate-just-work-for-pay guy who has worked in the US jumps to start a bodyshop after he has gotten his GC(greencard). It's very lucrative and luring on paper (you get n number of guys working on several clients and you make x over each guy - think 'pimping') I hope it has changed in the recent years.

But this is changing. As more Indians are aware of better opportunities back home (and with the next gen Indian being more affluent than earlier generation), lot of them stay back. It's only the crude who go on and take the bait from the companies.

fwiw, adding to yummyfajitas- it's not only the social separation of state/ethinicity; there's also an abstract eliteness that goes with bank-dev and non-bank - doesn't matter if you are with akamai in piscataway(neighbouring edison). :)

There are many "training" institutes in places like Edison, where they train you in practically any IT skill for 3 months, fake your resume and get 3-4 other Indians as a reference.

Many of these employees are brought to the US before there is an actual job at a client site. Then they are trained. Many are US college grads, who face going back home empty handed unless they get a H1 visa. Or they end up in Dunkin Donuts.

This is probably the biggest reason why their salaries are low. Because the H1 sponsor has propped up the employee, it is skimming their wages, and can exploit them in other ways, like no holidays, dodgy insurance etc.

Check out some of the training ads here:

http://us.classifieds.sulekha.com/

You cracked me up there, with that last bit. Its so bloody true, not all the time, but there is that state-affinity thing going. Do understand, cultures vary widely state to state, cuisine varies, those are some of the reasons. But at the same time, its a system that respects meritocracy like anywhere. If you are bloody damn good in what you do, people tend to flock to you.

Hahaha So true! as an India Grad student who has lived in New York, I totally agree with you, in fact I hated going in that area. I remember there was some controversy when some magazine author wrote an article about it. I actually agreed with him on nearly all points.

Here is that article by Joel Stein http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1999416,00....

My roommate is from Edison NJ, and has voiced many of the same sentiments. He's said the community is incredibly closed off, and that in high school the Indian kids mostly kept to themselves.

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