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

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

191–200 of 487 posts

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

#193
post #135

I never visited U.S and heard about H1-B and its abuse by Indian Body-shops. Let me know if below understanding is correct or not: 1) So far, Indian Body-shops paid low salary compared to original one. (for example, say instead of 80K/yr ,Indian Body-shops paid 40K/yr and kept the remaining for themselves) 2) Now with new bill, increased base amount to 130K/yr and also ensures this goes the employee? Is that correct?

Yes, Indian body shops have charged high fees >80k while not even remitting even close to the 60k back to the employee. I have witnessed this. I have also witnessed employers rescuing people from such body shops by hiring them for 60k on h1b for jobs that could absolutely be done by a u.s. citizen (web programming) and keeping their salary at 60k for many years despite growing skill. The system is broken and abused... unless you are the employer trying to work the angles to pay less.

Regarding question 2, it does bump up the $ amount but I am not sure it protects the worker any more than currently. Also other posters indicate the proposed 130k only applies to a subset of h1bs for whom less paperwork is filed, so i'm frankly not sure it goes far enough.

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

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how. Can you please elaborate?

Seen this way it only updates the salary requirement to accompany inflation, so you are actually just putting it like it already was during the beginning of the 90's.

Benefit costs have increased much more than the rate of inflation though.

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

#195

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 think the shortest fix for the violation part(Corporate/Ed tech loophole and the Implementation/Consultant loophole) is some boots on the ground for DHS to investigate worksites. If there is enough economic incentive vested in any one area, sooner or later people will game it. And the H1B business is very lucrative. Putting in oversight to such a thing is hard without boots on the ground/human resources. AFAIR Visa…

Given what "boots on the ground" typically means for federal agencies (i.e. armed raids), your suggestion makes me twitchy.

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

#196

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…

Bloomberg suggests this is going to get upstaged by the administration's proposed changes; but they're not really revealing any details about the draft. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-30/trump-s-n...

This months old Vanity Fair article gives some insight that Trump feels there is a role for immigration policy to make it easy for foreign students getting good jobs in the U.S. and innovating here; while his senior counselor and strategist thinks there are too many asians in Silicon Valley, and that it risks degrading civil society. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-30/trump-s-n...

But most any substantial change to immigration policy that isn't national security related, must come from Congress.

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

#197
post #46

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…

> - Startups and small businesses will get 20% of the visas. It'll be interesting to see how this is gamed Probably the old fashioned way: Tata Startup Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Consulting Services.

And the hill staffers who wrote the bill will start up a consulting service on how to comply with the small business requirements.

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

#198

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is just a proposal that has to get ratified by the House of Congress, right? It's noteworthy that Zoe Lofgren, the sponsor of this bill, has attempted to pass similar bills before, which were not successful. See e.g. https://www.us-immigration.com/blog/bill-fails-in-the-house-...

That is right. Forget voting, this bill may not even go to the Committee. I am not sure if this worth all this hysteria. If it is proposed by a ranking Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee, we will know it is serious.

Exec orders might be coming. https://news.google.com/news/amp?caurl=http%3A%2F%2Famp.usat...

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

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree that 60k is too low. But 130k is too high. Consider someone who has just finished their PhD in a relevant area. You want to employ them in your startup in e.g. Orlando, where the cost of living is much lower than SF. Maybe 80k is reasonable. But you'll have to pay a 50k premium. Or you could set up an office in Montreal. And then your tech team will come to Florida for a 3 month code camp every December anyway.…

>Consider someone who has just finished their PhD in a relevant area. Why? The H1B is supposed to bring in high skilled labor not new grads. If 80K is the going market rate for someone with those skills then you will be able to find someone to do the job for 80K. Artificially suppressing wages is the reason you can't find anyone to do the job for the "reasonable" rate. A pay spike will draw more people in to the fiel…

Hate to break it to you but someone with a PhD is not a 'new grad', they have often been working in a high pressure job for ~5 years post graduation, usually required to do teaching, assist on their supervisor's research projects (lots of grunt coding), and do research and write a thesis. In this hypothetical, their value comes from having specific expertise on top of general skills.

There is no guarantee you will be able to find an American with those skills, even for $129k. If there is a long term need, and the industry doesn't move somewhere cheaper, eventually there will be more applicants. I've yet to meet any company who says 'no problem, we'll just delay that project until we can find someone'.

You could have a payroll tax on H1Bs, say 25%, that goes toward funding STEM PhD stipends, and peg their minimum salaries to be greater than the median of comparable American salaries. Though that may create a perverse incentive for companies to pay locals a lot LESS so as to reduce the overall salary bill. Needs some expert modelling...

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

#200
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a combination of hyperbole and being out of touch. $130K is not "barely a living wage". It's a very good salary in the Bay Area and 1.5 times the average wage in SF.

OK, it is a bit exagerated, but try living on $130k in SF (as opposed to, say, East Palo Alto), paying off student loans, saving a bit, etc. $130k is a very good salary if you moved to SF a couple of decades ago and bought a house then .

I don't get this perspective.

SF is one of the most expensive cities in the US. The very fact you live there means you're well off. People with the mean (or median) US wage, couldn't even fathom living within the city limits.

It's kind of like someone who lives in Beverley Hills saying "I make $500K per year, but I'm only middle class since I can't afford an average home in Beverley Hills". Well no shit, the homes there are tens of millions of dollars.

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