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New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#21

Post by pc86 »

hocuspocus wrote: post #20
pkd wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thing is that the whole of US isn't Silicon Valley or Seattle. Startups in upcoming hubs like Portland and Boulder will suffer(sic) because the salary requirements are too high for them to satisfy given the living costs. It basically means that the only companies who are gonna be able to hire through H1Bs are the big cos or unicorns.

You're absolutely right, and I've said it myself in the past, this heavily favors one kind of companies in a few high CoL areas. You're better off selling ads than trying to cure cancer or solve the energy crisis, and sadly that's not only true when hiring foreign talent.

Nobody is solving the energy crisis by writing a React CRUD app.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#22

Post by readhn »

Whoever is working on the bill is disconnected from reality and the damage it is doing long term here.

Why's everyone so focused on IT? Everyone can learn how to code, it's not a real science.. Oh it's hacker news :)

Now walk into any major university science department. See who the newly minted PhD students are in biology, chemistry, physics, math ... Most are foreigners. This bill will send them home after they graduate... USA will lose here and other countries win big time on people with great science backgrounds with brains who are willing to work and move the science forward. It will take decades for American educational system to change (if it ever changes) and generate the replacements.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#23

Post by gregw2 »

Retric wrote: post #9
Shivetya wrote: post #4

so is this catching up or exceeding the rate of inflation? How was this salary number not tied to inflation or another index? If anything it seems to me to be a benefit to those seeking employment who have real skills and ability.

It's slightly more than inflation, but as it does not index to inflation it's going to quickly become meaningless.

Read the article. It is indexed to 35% above the median wage for a computer worker according to some of existing Department of Labor category. That median wage presumably will indirectly rise with inflation, so it's better than the previous static # and arguably more tied to the intent of the statute than even pure inflation indexing would be.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#24

Post by dccoolgai »

ebbv wrote: post #13

Reading the article it doesn't sound like this bill does anything to make it easier for the employee to find a different job once they are here (e.g. Making it easier for other employers to take on sponsorship of the H1-B visa.) The article says this bill makes it easier for students to get a path to citizenship but doesn't say anything about H1-B workers. I also don't think the salary requirement is necessarily a wi…

"that employers will find someone over here"

I believe that is rather the point.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#25

Post by ones_and_zeros »

Here is the summary straight from the horses mouth: https://lofgren.house.gov/uploadedfiles/high_skilled_bill_sx...

A few points:

- This does not raise the salary requirement to $130k/yr. This only applies to employers that do not want to do the extra paper work for "attestations regarding recruitment and non-displacement of U.S. workers"

- It takes a "market based" allocation strategy which allows "cash bonuses and similar compensation" to be included. This is a joke.

- Startups and small businesses will get 20% of the visas. It'll be interesting to see how this is gamed

- This does not fix the Corporate/Higher Ed partnership loophole

- This does not fix the power imbalance between visa holders and employers

I personally don't see this bill going anywhere. Zoe just needs to look like she is doing something.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#27

Post by lokithor »

ones_and_zeros wrote: post #25

Here is the summary straight from the horses mouth: https://lofgren.house.gov/uploadedfiles/high_skilled_bill_sx... A few points: - This does not raise the salary requirement to $130k/yr. This only applies to employers that do not want to do the extra paper work for "attestations regarding recruitment and non-displacement of U.S. workers" - It takes a "market based" allocation strategy which allows "cash bonuses and…

Yup. The fact that compensation is included, is useless. Companies give you unvested shares worth tonnes that take > 4 years to fully vest. The attrition rates are so high, the sweat shops can get away with it.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#28

Post by sytelus »

readhn wrote: post #22

Whoever is working on the bill is disconnected from reality and the damage it is doing long term here. Why's everyone so focused on IT? Everyone can learn how to code, it's not a real science.. Oh it's hacker news :) Now walk into any major university science department. See who the newly minted PhD students are in biology, chemistry, physics, math ... Most are foreigners. This bill will send them home after they gra…

You are exactly right. Single minimum wage doesn't make any sense considering there is such a wide gap between IT and everything else. However keeping minimum wage to the 1989 level hurts H1B IT workers more because many of them literally end up getting just that even if they qualify for far more. I guess the issue is not solvable easily because to create job titles and assign it minimum wage number that is, say, at least 10% more than average current is herculean task in itself.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#29

Post by trishume »

ones_and_zeros wrote: post #25

Here is the summary straight from the horses mouth: https://lofgren.house.gov/uploadedfiles/high_skilled_bill_sx... A few points: - This does not raise the salary requirement to $130k/yr. This only applies to employers that do not want to do the extra paper work for "attestations regarding recruitment and non-displacement of U.S. workers" - It takes a "market based" allocation strategy which allows "cash bonuses and…

I grant you this is in fact not the perfect reform bill, the question is, is it better than the current situation? To me it looks like it's at least somewhat better, so as a Canadian who may want to move to the US at some point, I'm hoping it passes.
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