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Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

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Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#131

Post by utunga »

ryen wrote: post #44
JeremyMorgan wrote: post #35

I'm wondering where the data came from and how accurate it it is. "In 2012 the Oregon software industry gave jobs to 38 foreign software engineers." Ok so here I am assuming you mean 38 new H1B engineers were hired in 2012. There is no way that could be true, I nearly hired and processed that many H1Bs personally in 2012. I was working with several others with similar or higher numbers. And that's just one company in…

The link shows h1bdata.info as a source, which uses data from here: http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/performancedata.cfm#d...

Does anyone know if this reporting is official base salary or if its total earnings including bonuses. In NY especially that's gonna make a pretty noticeable difference to the averages I'd say.

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#133

Post by TheCoelacanth »

stygiansonic wrote: post #113
grecy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you're a certified Engineer. I studied Software Engineering, and I'm accredited by the Institute of Engineers in Australia.

Not sure why you're getting downvoted, other than maybe because the original topic is US-centric. In many countries (not sure about the US), it is illegal to call yourself an engineer, regardless of what discipline it is. In Canada, various provincial bodies (PEO in Ontario) regulate the use of the title "engineer", including derivatives of it such as "software engineer". [0] Some of this might seem heavy-handed (see…

Probably because the two largest English speaking countries in the world place almost no restrictions on using the title "Engineer" whatsoever, so people from those countries get annoyed when people authoritatively state that you must not use the title "Engineer" unless you are properly certified, neglecting to mention that their authoritative statements apply to perhaps 10% of their audience.

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#134

Post by _delirium »

negrit wrote: post #111
_delirium wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the goal really is to enable highly qualified people to come to the U.S. (separate from the usual immigration process) wouldn't a fairly simple tweak just be to take the wage into account in the allocation? There's currently a fixed quota, with two things that go into allocating it: 1) offers not paying the "prevailing wage" are disqualified; and 2) the remaining offers are allocated in first-come, first-serve fas…

The wage is already part of the criteria for application. USCIS only accept application if the salary of the visa beneficiary is comparable to a US citizen salary doing the same job.

I mentioned that part; that's the "prevailing wage" requirement in (1) in my comment above. I'm proposing prioritizing by wage beyond that, e.g. if there are 300,000 applications that meet the "prevailing wage" requirement, and 50,000 slots, instead of allocating the slots randomly or first-come-first-serve, allocate them highest-wage-first.

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#137

Post by grecy »

stygiansonic wrote: post #113
grecy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you're a certified Engineer. I studied Software Engineering, and I'm accredited by the Institute of Engineers in Australia.

Not sure why you're getting downvoted, other than maybe because the original topic is US-centric. In many countries (not sure about the US), it is illegal to call yourself an engineer, regardless of what discipline it is. In Canada, various provincial bodies (PEO in Ontario) regulate the use of the title "engineer", including derivatives of it such as "software engineer". [0] Some of this might seem heavy-handed (see…

> To call oneself an engineer without having had the common/basic education in various topics like calculus, linear algebra or statistics is at best misleading, since an accredited engineering program would have provided exposure to such topics.

That was my point entirely.

I did study all of those things, my degree was under the faculty of Engineering, and the engineers institute of Australia agreed that I do meet the requirements to call myself an "Engineer" - with all that means.

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#138

Post by TheCoelacanth »

pslam wrote: post #31
fsk wrote: post #20

Alternatively, you could look at what % raise a former H1-b visa holder receives when he gets his greencard. I heard it can be 2x-3x, but I've never seen a formal analysis.

It is illegal to pay an H1-B Visa Holder differently to the prevailing wage. Converting to a Green Card should have no effect on your pay, and if it does, the employers are committing fraud. You may have a side-effect of increased pay due to having more positions open to you. Holding an H1-B restricts you to a specific job description. For example, if you were a plain ordinary "Software Engineer" with nobody reportin…

It's also illegal to commit murder in the US. Yet it still happens ~14,000 times per year.

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#139

Post by tjl »

ryanSrich wrote: post #69
grecy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you're a certified Engineer. I studied Software Engineering, and I'm accredited by the Institute of Engineers in Australia.

> Only if you're a certified Engineer Not really. If you've got a CS or SE degree you are certainly an engineer. If you've built systems and worked in the industry solving difficult problems you are an engineer. In the US we don't need an expensive piece of paper telling us what we're qualified to call ourselves. EDIT: To be clear I'm referring to software engineering. Not all engineering. I thought that was obvious…

Did you have to take a course on ethics? What about software and society? In Canada, in order to get accreditation as an engineering program (including software engineering) there's a set of requirements to be taught. One is a course on technology's impact on society. Also, in Ontario in order to get professionally licensed as an engineer (which is required before you can call yourself an engineer, legally) one has to take an exam on ethics & law as they pertain to engineering. So, we study case law and various ethical situations.

People have been taken to court for calling themselves engineers if they're not officially licensed. This is why the MCSE is no longer an acronym as there was a court case about it. There's a few kinds of engineers that don't have to be licensed as they pre-date the law (e.g., stationary engineers who take care of things like boilers), but they typically have their own regulatory organizations.

Re: Show HN: A histogram of salaries given to H1B workers in the software industry

#140

Post by negrit »

_delirium wrote: post #134
negrit wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wage is already part of the criteria for application. USCIS only accept application if the salary of the visa beneficiary is comparable to a US citizen salary doing the same job.

I mentioned that part; that's the "prevailing wage" requirement in (1) in my comment above. I'm proposing prioritizing by wage beyond that, e.g. if there are 300,000 applications that meet the "prevailing wage" requirement, and 50,000 slots, instead of allocating the slots randomly or first-come-first-serve, allocate them highest-wage-first.

Then Facebook, Google, Apple & co could be the only one winning the hiring war.

Sponsoring someone would be too damn dangerous and expensive for smaller companies and startups.

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