Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

Post by mrkstu » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 11:03 PM UTC

jsnk wrote: post #87

nrmitchi wrote: post #33

I'll give you that, but it seems like a much simpler solution would have just been improving the flexibility for an H1B worker to be allowed to work at any employer for the term of their status. If an employer used an H1B in order to hire a foreign worker and then under pay them, the worker would just get another job that pays market rate, without the work status concern. Without the artificial control over the emplo…

This will elevate the income of low paying H1B workers, but also decrease the income of average paid American workers. If the market has an abundance of low paying workers, the market overall will pay workers lower.

Post by nrmitchi » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 11:04 PM UTC

dkhenry wrote: post #215

nrmitchi wrote: post #33

I'll give you that, but it seems like a much simpler solution would have just been improving the flexibility for an H1B worker to be allowed to work at any employer for the term of their status. If an employer used an H1B in order to hire a foreign worker and then under pay them, the worker would just get another job that pays market rate, without the work status concern. Without the artificial control over the emplo…

H1B employee's can work at any employer for the term of their status. The employee only has to transfer the visa to the new employer. I have done this for multiple employee's on H1B's its nothing like getting a new H1B for someone on OPT or getting a new H1B for an oversea's employee

Post by chrisseaton » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 11:05 PM UTC

sushshshsh wrote: post #202

chairmanwow1 wrote: post #189

Overall, I really support these changes. However, this piece really struck me as a big mistake: "Under the changes, an applicant must have a college degree in the specific field in which he or she is looking to work. A software developer, for example, wouldn’t be awarded an H-1B visa if that person has a degree in electrical engineering." Some of the best software engineers I know are graduate degree holders from neu…

I would absolutely speculate that this requirement was made to block many good candidates. After all, the point of a visa system is to constrict the pool of potential candidates anyway.

Post by yostrovs » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 11:05 PM UTC

fizwhiz wrote: post #195

> Under the new rule, the required wage level for entry-level workers would rise to the 45th percentile of their profession’s distribution, from the current requirement of the 17th percentile. The requirement for the highest-skilled workers would rise to the 95th percentile, from the 67th percentile. If you've got an undergraduate degree in CS looking for work as a SWE does that mean you'll need to get paid at p95? W…

Post by belltaco » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 11:05 PM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #95

jopsen wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will an executive order (which I assume this is) actually make any difference? Doesn't it take an act of congress to make any serious headway here? Personally, I was an H1B a 4.5 years before Trump convinced it was time to leave. I was in the bay area and handsomely overpaid. I have no personal experience of it being abused, but I'm obviously privileged, having worked at reputable tech companies and coming from reaso…

This is a rule in the Federal Register. So it's basically like law. It's essentially how the executive is interpreting the laws that congress has passed. There is a rule that says a new President can automatically overturn all rules made in the last 90 days of the previous administration, but we're before that deadline, so this is pretty much a done deal. If the next admin wanted to change this, they have to go throu…