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H-1B abuse: Bay Area tech workers from India paid a pittance, feds say

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Re: H-1B abuse: Bay Area tech workers from India paid a pittance, feds say

#21
post #9
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You contributing to supply would still suppress wages though no?

I guess I should just not work for a living, then. I'm hoping that people making such an observation have native American ancestry.

Sure you can. But you have to go back first.

Re: H-1B abuse: Bay Area tech workers from India paid a pittance, feds say

#22

This is one thing I don't entirely understand in terms of political alignment. The one side that is supposed to be about the little guy seems to support this system of immigration which leads quite directly to depressed wages and exploitation of this sort. Even in cases where the 'guest workers' are not so ridiculously underpaid, companies still exploit the fact that these workers generally have to have this job or t…

Actually H1B is easily transferable.

Re: H-1B abuse: Bay Area tech workers from India paid a pittance, feds say

#23
It's always companies that specialize in offshoring caught doing this. Why do these companies get H1B visas when there are companies willing to pay better that don't?

Turn H1B into an auction. Lotteries are a terrible way to allocate a scare resource.

Re: H-1B abuse: Bay Area tech workers from India paid a pittance, feds say

#24

Why not just adjust the H-1B program so that the highest paid positions get priority? That way companies could still hire abroad for in-demand skills, but it would eliminate bringing people into the country to avoid paying the prevailing wages for IT workers. You could even make exceptions for academic or medical work as needed. It seems like a common sense adjustment to the program, but I don't see many people offer…

That would be great, but companies would figure out ways around it. Company would pay 2X and ask employee to pay X to some random/affiliated company for training etc. They would even do this handoff in India to stay out of radar and tell you what many indians would take the deal.

The solution is "EXTREMELY" strict penalties including prison time for board of companies who indulge in it willingly.

Re: H-1B abuse: Bay Area tech workers from India paid a pittance, feds say

#25

H-1B needs to be ended. No more wage-suppression handouts to multi-billion dollar companies. Google and the rest of these companies can pay either pay more, or train more CITIZENS.

I really have a hard time feeling sorry for engineers like us making 100-300k a year.

If you actually want to talk about wage suppression, lets focus on the low wage jobs first, shall we?

Re: H-1B abuse: Bay Area tech workers from India paid a pittance, feds say

#26
post #6

> Cloudwick Technologies of Newark has been ordered to pay about $175,000 to 12 employees for back wages after violating H-1B rules, the U.S. Department of Labor said. Is it $175000 in back wages per person, or total for all 12 people? The wording is a little sloppy here.

[deleted]

Re: H-1B abuse: Bay Area tech workers from India paid a pittance, feds say

#27
post #6

> Cloudwick Technologies of Newark has been ordered to pay about $175,000 to 12 employees for back wages after violating H-1B rules, the U.S. Department of Labor said. Is it $175000 in back wages per person, or total for all 12 people? The wording is a little sloppy here.

"A Northern California company that federal officials say violated salary requirements of the country’s foreign-worker visa program will pay a total of $173,044 to 12 workers, the U.S. Department of Labor said Tuesday." https://apnews.com/d4a22bf65d5f49f3b65bc4806e86e0bd

Given that's what one might have paid for only two of those workers for a year at their expected salaries, this seems woefully inadequate as a deterrent.

Re: H-1B abuse: Bay Area tech workers from India paid a pittance, feds say

#28

Why not just adjust the H-1B program so that the highest paid positions get priority? That way companies could still hire abroad for in-demand skills, but it would eliminate bringing people into the country to avoid paying the prevailing wages for IT workers. You could even make exceptions for academic or medical work as needed. It seems like a common sense adjustment to the program, but I don't see many people offer…

Wont that result in companies having to overpay foreign workers? Essentially making the entire program ineffective.

Re: H-1B abuse: Bay Area tech workers from India paid a pittance, feds say

#29
post #12
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You contributing to supply would still suppress wages though no?

There are tons of studies that show that high-skilled immigrants create more jobs than they occupy and overall boost a region's economy, but all of those are conveniently ignored whenever someone wants to make a point. Silicon Valley wouldn't exist without the H-1B visa. Yes, there are companies that abuse visas and pay low wages etc. Why not focus on improving enforcement rather than rant about immigrants?

This is true. High skilled are desired and add to the economy; unfortunately, in an attempt to ride on the coattails of legal immigrants, supporters of illegal immigration purposefully conflate the two and dilute the former's repute, unfortunately.

Re: H-1B abuse: Bay Area tech workers from India paid a pittance, feds say

#30
post #12
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You contributing to supply would still suppress wages though no?

There are tons of studies that show that high-skilled immigrants create more jobs than they occupy and overall boost a region's economy, but all of those are conveniently ignored whenever someone wants to make a point. Silicon Valley wouldn't exist without the H-1B visa. Yes, there are companies that abuse visas and pay low wages etc. Why not focus on improving enforcement rather than rant about immigrants?

Also last quarter, 65% of Apple's revenue was from outside America. And, yet, looking at their total H1B numbers, only about 9% of their employees are H1B holders.

If American companies earn money from the rest of the world, is it really that unfair that they hire a small percent of international people to work at their company?

1) https://www.immihelp.com/employer/APPLE+INC/205136/applicati...

2) https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/02/apple-reports-first-q...

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