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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

#41

Post by smnrchrds »

jarsj wrote: post #24
tiff_seattle wrote: post #14

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.

I doubt that would be even remotely legal. If it were, you would have seen tons of minimum wage jobs paying below minimum wage through these schemes.

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

#42

Post by kalleboo »

malikNF wrote: post #28
tiff_seattle wrote: post #14

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.

The point of the program is to fill positions that are difficult or impossible to fill locally. To this end employers are supposed to pay a fair market wage. Underpaying foreign workers is an abuse of the program and what is making it ineffective. If they started being "overpaid" it would be an indication that the program is fulfilling its objective (proof that the employer is desperate for the candidate).

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

#43

Post by candiodari »

sanxiyn wrote: post #38
jen729w wrote: post #11

Shocker. Here’s what happens in Melbourne, Australia. I used to work for one of the “big 4” banks. 1. Bank outsources to vendor. Typically IBM. “It’ll be cheaper!” 2. IBM is, initially, cheaper - because all of their staff are in India of course. 3. But they can’t do the job from India because they need to be here talking to their colleagues at the bank. 4. So they get flown to Melbourne, but still on Indian wages, w…

As long as Indian staffs are okay with the deal (and I think they are) I think this is a good thing. One small step to open border.

This is exactly why open borders are not ok. Abuse of workers is NOT an acceptable cost.

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

#44

Post by Cookingboy »

thisisit wrote: post #32

PSA: This is massive clickbait. This article is not about "Bay Area", as in San Franciso Bay area. Here's the content: A dozen Indian workers at an East Bay technology firm were promised salaries of up to $8,300 Cloudwick Technologies of Newark has been ordered to pay about Seriously, what is this East Bay area? Google turns up nothing. Edit: Thank for pointing out my mistake. Looks like my understanding of US geogra…

What are you talking about? East Bay is part of the SF Bay Area, which is consisted of cities such as Newark (the city in this article), Union City, Fremont, etc.

Here in the Bay Area we have East Bay, South Bay, Peninsula, etc

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

#45

Post by gnulinux »

baruchthescribe wrote: post #21
vkou wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is an extremely aggressive and rude attitude. How do people end up hating other people this much?

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

#46

Post by tiff_seattle »

youzicha wrote: post #37
tiff_seattle wrote: post #14

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…

Exactly this was proposed last year in a bill with a democrat sponsor. But right now H1b is basically the only way to get hired as an immigrant. If you made it wage-prioritized there would be basically no way to get an h1b for entry level jobs, which would really suck for new graduates. http://alexyar.tumblr.com/post/156649015342/anyway-heres-the...

H-1B shouldn't be used for entry level positions though. It should be used for positions that cannot be filled by the local workforce.

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

#47

Post by neuronexmachina »

TangoTrotFox wrote: post #13

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…

Do you have a source for your claims about political alignment and skilled foreign-worker policy? My impression was that many Democrats want green cards for those who earn advanced STEM degrees in the US, while Republican policy has recently been more protectionist/nativist.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3096103/it-careers/the...

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

#48

Post by diebeforei485 »

This is fairly typical of companies that use this employer-client or employer-vendor-client (EVC) business model. In this case, the employer is Cloudwick, and the clients are "Apple, Cisco, Comcast, American Express, Bank of America, Safeway, Verizon and Visa".

It is very common for employers in the EVC model to pay well below market wages, and often withhold, or ask employees to pay back some of the money under the table, making the actual wage much lower. The employees are pretty much powerless - if they refuse, they would get fired and be forced to leave the country.

These employers often add fake projects or fake experience to their employees' resumes when offering them to a vendor or client.

There is only one solution - a massive clampdown on third-party placements on H-1B employers, as is already done on L-1 and STEM OPT employers.

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

#49

Post by pmalynin »

youzicha wrote: post #37
tiff_seattle wrote: post #14

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…

Exactly this was proposed last year in a bill with a democrat sponsor. But right now H1b is basically the only way to get hired as an immigrant. If you made it wage-prioritized there would be basically no way to get an h1b for entry level jobs, which would really suck for new graduates. http://alexyar.tumblr.com/post/156649015342/anyway-heres-the...

I don't know what you're talking about. As a new graduate, I have a very hefty Data Science offer in the Bay.

(Canadian here btw).

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

#50

Post by candiodari »

cheriot wrote: post #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.

They're also a way to reward exploitation. Why ? Because exploiters can just rapid-fire requests and therefore increase their odds massively, but companies that want specific high-performers cannot, because there aren't that many.
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