What about non-tech workers that come to the US through an H1-B? Scientists come to mind. If you don't have a PhD, your starting salary isn't going to exceed $100K. Are they just out of luck?
Outside of very high cost of living cities, probably yes
Trump's visa plan leaks: American techies first
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Re: Trump's visa plan leaks: American techies first
#22I'm in favor of vastly raising the H1-B cap, or eliminating it altogether. But. If we are going to have an H1-B cap, I think awarding the visas to the highest-paid applicants is probably the most fair way to administer it. I know of no better way to objectively measure "in high demand" than "well-paid."
Does this mean that any applicant can set their salary requirements at $300,000 and nobody else can be hired until they are?
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Re: Trump's visa plan leaks: American techies first
#23I'm in favor of vastly raising the H1-B cap, or eliminating it altogether. But. If we are going to have an H1-B cap, I think awarding the visas to the highest-paid applicants is probably the most fair way to administer it. I know of no better way to objectively measure "in high demand" than "well-paid."
I think a big problem with H1-B is that it's hard to switch jobs. While an American engineer can easily quit and go somewhere else, a non-resident is pretty much forced to leave the country. This makes the worker's bargaining position very weak, and overall lowers the market rate for immigrants.
Re: Trump's visa plan leaks: American techies first
#24What are ways companies skirt L1 laws? I always assumed offshoring was done through a country with the laxest visa laws possible.
The L1 has no quota so it is used to get around the H1B quota. They just have to form a shell company in the other country, have employees stick around for an year and then come over under the L1 visa. There are no education requirements unlike an H1B. There are no prevailing wage requirements unlike an H1B.
Re: Trump's visa plan leaks: American techies first
#25I'm in favor of vastly raising the H1-B cap, or eliminating it altogether. But. If we are going to have an H1-B cap, I think awarding the visas to the highest-paid applicants is probably the most fair way to administer it. I know of no better way to objectively measure "in high demand" than "well-paid."
Does this mean that any applicant can set their salary requirements at $300,000 and nobody else can be hired until they are?
My understanding is that the $300,000 person already has a job locked down. An employer has already agreed to hire him for $300,000 as long as his H1B visa is approved. And since $300,000 is super high, it would get approved before any lower paid people.
So the process:
1) You have a job locked down with a company for a specific position at a specific salary. You + Company apply for an H1B.
2) All of those H1Bs are sorted by salary and the top N are selected. No random lottery anymore.
Re: Trump's visa plan leaks: American techies first
#26This'll be interesting. Tech workers hate Trump, and have been forcing SV bosses to say bad things about him. But this move is clearly going to benefit us (well, I'm in Australia so not affected directly, but "us" as tech workers). Raising tech salaries and reducing the ridiculous exploitation of immigrant tech workers is good. SV bosses would clearly like to continue paying less for tech workers, and the visa progra…
> Raising tech salaries and reducing the ridiculous exploitation of immigrant tech workers is good. Why not keep the H-1B floor at 60,000, but require employers to contribute another 60,000 to a fund to pay for Americans to be retrained as tech workers?
Because the same companies will open training programs that provide $50 worth of education to the Americans and pocket the rest. Probably even make them do mandatory job training alongside the H1bs and triple dip.
Re: Trump's visa plan leaks: American techies first
#27This'll be interesting. Tech workers hate Trump, and have been forcing SV bosses to say bad things about him. But this move is clearly going to benefit us (well, I'm in Australia so not affected directly, but "us" as tech workers). Raising tech salaries and reducing the ridiculous exploitation of immigrant tech workers is good. SV bosses would clearly like to continue paying less for tech workers, and the visa progra…
> Raising tech salaries and reducing the ridiculous exploitation of immigrant tech workers is good.
> tech
Are we able to replace "tech" with other types of workers? Or is nationalism only ok when it protects this particular class of workers?
Re: Trump's visa plan leaks: American techies first
#28Huh, over 30 stories posted in the last 24 hours with "Trump" in the title, only 2 with more than 20 points, and they're both relatively pro-Trump. Interesting.
Re: Trump's visa plan leaks: American techies first
#29I'm in favor of vastly raising the H1-B cap, or eliminating it altogether. But. If we are going to have an H1-B cap, I think awarding the visas to the highest-paid applicants is probably the most fair way to administer it. I know of no better way to objectively measure "in high demand" than "well-paid."
Does this mean that any applicant can set their salary requirements at $300,000 and nobody else can be hired until they are?
I think by highest paid applicant they meant have an auction system instead of a lottery system. The highest paid job offers up to the quota will get accepted instead of picking them randomly. But there is still issues like valuation of stock options in such offers. Also cash strapped startups may have a hard time against big companies like Google. Maybe it needs to be a combination of pay and some random factor?
Re: Trump's visa plan leaks: American techies first
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Raising tech salaries and reducing the ridiculous exploitation of immigrant tech workers is good. Why not keep the H-1B floor at 60,000, but require employers to contribute another 60,000 to a fund to pay for Americans to be retrained as tech workers?
I don't think that's particularly fair on immigrants. It sets a double standard as to what people are worth. PS. Also Australian... yeah, we're awake at this time. EDIT: To clarify, I'm not at all suggesting screw over Americans either. I'd not be thrilled working in any industry where I'd spent years getting qualifications, just to be constantly undercut by any group of people. However, I don't think encouraging com…
> I don't think that's particularly fair on immigrants. It sets a double standard as to what people are worth.
How so? The minimum wage for H-1Bs is over 4x higher than the minimum wage for Americans.
If Americans had a minimum wage of 60k per year and immigrants were getting paid $7.25 per hour then that would be one thing, but it's currently the other way around.