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Comment by udit99 | Hacker News Reader

As part of the H1 filing process, employers are required to post an LCA (Labor Condition Application) at the workplace. This is an official-looking document typically stuck on a pinboard around the workarea. Amongst other things, this explicitly lists the prevailing wage/salary at which the H1 is hired. So, in effect there is nothing hidden from other employees or the employee being hired. I have second hand knowledge that LCA placement is in fact audited. In any case, LCA placement has been enforced by the legal department in my last couple of workplaces.

>About half of all H1B holders come from India alone.

Yes, that is true and I'm not denying that. My point is to clarify misconceptions about the H1 Visa program itself being legal slave labor and focusing on highlighting the subtleties that give it this perception.

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So, in effect there is nothing hidden from other employees or the employee being hired.

That's not particularly helpful - the only people who see it have an economic incentive to not rock the boat.

The thing to remember about H1B visas is that there are tons of exceptions to the "slave labor" situation. No one sensible believes that every single H1B visa holder is a pawn to keep US wages below fair-market pricing. The problem is that a large number, probably a majority, of them are. Anecdotal contradictions don't disprove the thesis.

> the only people who see it have an economic incentive to not rock the boat

You're assuming that the employee themselves don't have a reason to rock the boat if their filing paperwork lists a salary higher than their effective salary? As an H1 whose paperwork lists a salary higher than my effective salary, there's nothing that stops me from realizing that I'm underpaid and switching employers when convenient.

As an H1 whose paperwork lists a salary higher than my effective salary, there's nothing that stops me from realizing that I'm underpaid and switching employers when convenient.

Do I really need to point out that in the context of enforcement actions, that means nothing?

I guess we're addressing two different issues. You're focusing on enforcement to address the abuse of the H1 program, whereas I'm taking the H1 worker perspective and trying to dispel the notion of indentured servitude.

>As part of the H1 filing process, employers are required to post an LCA

As someone who works in immigration, the LCA is almost never posted. And if the prevailing wage is too high, they will just apply under a different SOC category and job title. There are no real ways for USCIS to enforce these rules.

Yeah, I remember finding it very interesting the first time I saw one of those postings, because the salary on the form was about 1/3 my salary at the time, and lower than my starting salary when I held the lowest-ranking programming position at the company as a new college grad. It seemed to be fairly clear evidence of abuse.

Here's an explanation of how that works - it is a fairly long read that boils down to a bait-and-switch on the job classification.

http://www.cringely.com/2012/10/23/what-americans-dont-know-...

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