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Comment by arjn | Hacker News Reader

Thats funny. I'm an H1B and am definitely not cheaper than my US counterparts. So don't generalize.

Your case shouldn't be generalized either. Strangely, I'm getting a lot of 404's when trying to find the actual stats on the Dept of Labor website.

The parent is not generalizing. The first step of the application process, not just for H1B but for all employment-based visas (including green card), is to submit a ton of evidence to the Department of Labor that proves that you are being paid at least the median salary for your position in the region you are employed in. You can read more about that here (second paragraph): http://www.dol.gov/whd/immigration/h1b.htm

Do some employers game this system? Sure. But doing so is risky and repeat offenders can get blacklisted by the USCIS.

My own experience is that H1-Bs were cheap consultant fodder, but that was from the late 90's. Hire a bunch of folks from India under H-1B, place them at companies, and pay them lower (non-consultant wages, poor benefits), then collect the difference the higher bill rate. I can name a couple of companies in the Twin Cities that pulled that stunt. The above is my generalization of my experience as the GP and GGP did.

I saw that page, but I was looking for the actual wage stats and kept running into 404s (including one from that page).

Like I said, the system can be gamed. But that's not an argument against hiring foreign workers. It's an argument for improving the system to make it more robust.

No, its not an argument against hiring foreign workers. It is an argument that the current system is broken. I would prefer they do a very ungovernment thing and scrap it then replace it (without a gap / carrying over the workers) with something rethought.

I would particularly be happier with something based on automatic worker visas for graduates of US universities, applying the permit to the spouse also, and no specific company assignment. This sponsored stuff keeps everyones wages down by not providing H-1B movement.

>My own experience is that H1-Bs were cheap consultant fodder, but that was from the late 90's. Hire a bunch of folks from India under H-1B, place them at companies, and pay them lower (non-consultant wages, poor benefits), then collect the difference the higher bill rate.

That's still how the bulk of H-1Bs are used. The majority of them are granted to companies like Cognizant, Infosys, TCS, and several others. For example:

>The two largest H-1B users are Indian-based, Infosys, with 6,298 visas, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), with 6,258. In third place is Cognizant, which is based in New Jersey, but runs large offshore centers. These firms have long dominated the top H-1B list spots.

>Hira points out that over the last four years, Cognizant has received about 23,000 new H-1B workers with visas valid for up to 6 years, and has a number of workers on L-1s. (L-1 visas are used by multinational firms to transfer employees between countries.) "So, most, if not nearly all, of Cognizant's employees in the US are on some guest-worker visa," said Hira.

From: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9247241/Offshore_firm...

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