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Comment by jbooth | Hacker News Reader

Yet if tech workers are in such short supply, why are so many of them unemployed or underpaid? According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), tech employment rates still haven't rebounded to pre-recession levels. And from 2001 to 2011, the mean hourly wage for computer programmers didn't even increase enough to beat inflation.

I think anyone who is actually any good at programming could disagree with that statement.

There are 2 problems with H-1Bs:

1) Body shops in northern NJ bringing mediocre talent here, lying on their resumes to get them placed, and then paying them 1/10 of what they're billed as indentured servants.

2) Not enough visas for qualified people, partially because of 1.

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What's ironic is that these body shops are mostly non-American companies (usually Indian ones that hire Indians).

Yeah. I work with several very talented indians, and hear on a regular basis about their visa woes. People who've paid taxes in this country for 10 years, raising kids here, the only reason they're not citizens is because the process takes too damn long. They're on H-1Bs and deserve to be citizens, so it touches a nerve when I hear H-1B described as some 'dey tuk ur jawbs' system.

If you're being outcompeted by the incompetent body shop employees, you need to step up your game rather than try to restrict the labor market.

I would be fine with them getting green cards and letting them compete on the same terms as I do. I'm not fine competing with someone that gets deported if they get fired and don't find someone else to sponsor their visa. H-1Bs give employers too much power over the employees.

There may be some body shops with incompetent people, but I think there are plenty of competent H1-B holders.

The proper framing is that their visa can be held over their head to extract 14 hour days 6 or 7 days a week and other working conditions and salaries that Americans would not accept or be able to compete with (for good reason).

The US government actually sets generous price floors on what H1-B's can be paid to prevent this sort of thing (for better or for worse). An H1-B application specifying a salary that is lower than said floor would be rejected.

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