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Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

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Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#171

Post by oblio »

justizin wrote: post #169
JeremyMorgan wrote: post #35

I'm wondering where the data came from and how accurate it it is. "In 2012 the Oregon software industry gave jobs to 38 foreign software engineers." Ok so here I am assuming you mean 38 new H1B engineers were hired in 2012. There is no way that could be true, I nearly hired and processed that many H1Bs personally in 2012. I was working with several others with similar or higher numbers. And that's just one company in…

You nearly hired and processed 38 H1-Bs personally in 2012? How many American Citizens - children of previous immigrants, or of native americans - did you fucking hire?

Hmmm... was the Great Melting Pot created just by Native Americans? Not that I have anything against them, but wasn't the whole point of the USA to be a giant blender for people of all nations? How do you think that happened? By only hiring locals?

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#172

Post by throwaway6497 »

hyperlz wrote: post #168
throwaway6496 wrote: post #152

My salary is missing. I earn well over $300k base salary, and H-1B'd in California, 2014. My salary is on visadoor, but not here. If my high salary is missing, what other high salaries are missing, too? Does this give us a distribution that is distorted low?

There are only 4 cases in CA in 2014 with salaries between 300K and 400K.

Since this information is public, what are these companies names? It is too painful to scrape visadoor.com for this information.

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#173

Post by klipt »

utunga wrote: post #131
ryen wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The link shows h1bdata.info as a source, which uses data from here: http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/performancedata.cfm#d...

Does anyone know if this reporting is official base salary or if its total earnings including bonuses. In NY especially that's gonna make a pretty noticeable difference to the averages I'd say.

Yeah, when I looked at my LCA it contained:

- Prevailing wage

- My actual base salary (higher than above)

No sure which of the above they're using for this infographic (I know the actual base salary has to be >= prevailing wage, but is it public?), but when you include stock grants / bonuses / 401k matching, my total compensation is well above both of those numbers.

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#174

Post by largote »

utunga wrote: post #131
ryen wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The link shows h1bdata.info as a source, which uses data from here: http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/performancedata.cfm#d...

Does anyone know if this reporting is official base salary or if its total earnings including bonuses. In NY especially that's gonna make a pretty noticeable difference to the averages I'd say.

Only base salaries are used for Visa purposes. No equity/bonuses are included.

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#175

Post by Spooky23 »

shas3 wrote: post #61
djb_hackernews wrote: post #12

This gets to the rub of prevailing wage. You are hiring a developer, do you call her an engineer where the prevailing wage is 87k or do you call her a programmer where the prevailing wage is 61k? This type of fraud is difficult to prove and there probably isn't even anyone responsible in the government to verify or investigate issues. EDIT: forgot to mention that the prevailing wage can be determined by salary survey…

Why is there an implicit assumption that the H1B visa program engenders fraud? A lot of H1B discussions on HN focus on fraud and avoid talking about legitimate talented foreigners because that stuff is not as interesting. H1B discussions on HN are like the crime beat in newspapers. Further, 'H1B' seems like a catchall term for hating on immigrant labor in the software industry. Here are some examples on HN that demon…

Becuase it's a shady industry that exploits foreign labor and suppresses wages.

A former employer employed J2EE devs for $25/hr from an agency, meaning the workers literally make about $15, and are basically indentured to their employer for the visa period

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#176

Post by negrit »

pm90 wrote: post #144
negrit wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is actually alarming how 'anti startup' USCIS can be. Here are list of fraud indicators they released: http://www.happyschools.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/h1b-v...

They aren't anti-startup as much as anti-fraud.

Yes, my wording was bad. It's more like not startup friendly.

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#177

Post by stygiansonic »

grecy wrote: post #137
stygiansonic wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you're getting downvoted, other than maybe because the original topic is US-centric. In many countries (not sure about the US), it is illegal to call yourself an engineer, regardless of what discipline it is. In Canada, various provincial bodies (PEO in Ontario) regulate the use of the title "engineer", including derivatives of it such as "software engineer". [0] Some of this might seem heavy-handed (see…

> To call oneself an engineer without having had the common/basic education in various topics like calculus, linear algebra or statistics is at best misleading, since an accredited engineering program would have provided exposure to such topics. That was my point entirely. I did study all of those things, my degree was under the faculty of Engineering, and the engineers institute of Australia agreed that I do meet th…

I was agreeing with you, which is why I started out my comment with "Not sure why you're getting downvoted..."

The rest of my comment was just elaborating on what I imagined you'd meant by your comment, to hopefully detract from your downvoters.

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#178

Post by klipt »

ForHackernews wrote: post #151
rconti wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a huge surprise to me. When I went back to college, I graduated in 2006 and IS/CS/CE rates were at all-time lows. I guess it's been awhile now, but the numbers probably rebounded so recently that the only glut of talent (if there is one) is in very recent grads. We do not have major unemployment in the Valley. It's very very very hard to find good people.

> It's very very very hard to find good people. Any time somebody says this, I always mentally add "...at the wage I want to pay." It is not hard to find good people if you offered a million dollar salary. If there were a legitimate labor shortage, wages would be skyrocketing. Instead, we get employers whining and agitating for increasing the H1B quota.

Of course, a company can only reasonably offer a million dollar salary if that hire will increase their revenue by over a million. I'm guessing that's a pretty rare hire.

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#179

Post by stygiansonic »

TheCoelacanth wrote: post #133
stygiansonic wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you're getting downvoted, other than maybe because the original topic is US-centric. In many countries (not sure about the US), it is illegal to call yourself an engineer, regardless of what discipline it is. In Canada, various provincial bodies (PEO in Ontario) regulate the use of the title "engineer", including derivatives of it such as "software engineer". [0] Some of this might seem heavy-handed (see…

Probably because the two largest English speaking countries in the world place almost no restrictions on using the title "Engineer" whatsoever, so people from those countries get annoyed when people authoritatively state that you must not use the title "Engineer" unless you are properly certified, neglecting to mention that their authoritative statements apply to perhaps 10% of their audience.

Perhaps that is the reason, but it doesn't necessarily make it right nor justify it.

Would it be better for the industry (and society in general) if the titles of "doctor", "lawyer" or "accountant" weren't as regulated/protected? Should we care if people are annoyed that they can't self-label themselves as one of these titles?

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#180

Post by klipt »

luuio wrote: post #163
scilro wrote: post #156

Common knowledge is that foreign workers will typically have lower wages on average because they have less freedom to switch companies, and as such have less bargaining power. On the other hand, giving greater visibility into H1-B wages like this could exert an slight upward pressure on their wages as well.

>foreign workers will typically have lower wages >they have less freedom to switch companies Is there some data/documentation to back this up? As far as I know, an H1B VISA does not tie you to a specific company.

It is tied to a company (and job description, and location). Any change in those requires amending/transferring the H1B, even just switching locations within the same company.

I found this out the hard way when I accidentally gave the lawyers my company's headquarters address instead of the office where I would be working. They're like 35 miles apart but that still required an amendment.

Plus while on H1B I can't sell a mobile app, or monetize a Youtube channel (things I could of course do if I were living in my home country), or even rent a room on AirBnB, as my visa restricts me to income from my sponsoring employer. Luckily I should have a green card soon.

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