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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

#151

Post by ForHackernews »

rconti wrote: post #112
unprepare wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we have major unemployment inside of the US. We also have the highest ever rate of Computer Science graduates.[1] Those two combined make the 'need' for foreign tech workers seem very suspicious. On top of questionable need, there are other facets of the program that are obvious areas of potential abuse (employer reported prevailing wages, employer sponsorship forcing employees to stay out of the competitive…

This is a huge surprise to me. When I went back to college, I graduated in 2006 and IS/CS/CE rates were at all-time lows. I guess it's been awhile now, but the numbers probably rebounded so recently that the only glut of talent (if there is one) is in very recent grads. We do not have major unemployment in the Valley. It's very very very hard to find good people.

> It's very very very hard to find good people.

Any time somebody says this, I always mentally add "...at the wage I want to pay."

It is not hard to find good people if you offered a million dollar salary. If there were a legitimate labor shortage, wages would be skyrocketing. Instead, we get employers whining and agitating for increasing the H1B quota.

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

#152

Post by throwaway6496 »

My salary is missing. I earn well over $300k base salary, and H-1B'd in California, 2014. My salary is on visadoor, but not here. If my high salary is missing, what other high salaries are missing, too? Does this give us a distribution that is distorted low?

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

#153

Post by arenaninja »

grecy wrote: post #58
arenaninja wrote: post #39

Wow, that disparity between developer and engineer... I'm not an H1B worker, but does this mean I should start calling myself an Engineer?

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

I should've specified: I'm in the US, where Engineer/Programmer/Developer are mostly interchangeable (in fact I've read a ton of blog posts on which is the better term, none of which arrive at the same conclusion). I'm positive some BigCorp has a 100 page definition differentiating these, however.

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

#155

Post by _delirium »

negrit wrote: post #140
_delirium wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure, markets are an imperfect way to allocate limited resources. But is a lottery really a better way? At least markets would allocate the slots in way that bears some relationship to where the maximum demand in the economy for those workers is.

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

#156

Post by scilro »

Common knowledge is that foreign workers will typically have lower wages on average because they have less freedom to switch companies, and as such have less bargaining power. On the other hand, giving greater visibility into H1-B wages like this could exert an slight upward pressure on their wages as well.

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

#157

Post by jsprogrammer »

throwaway6496 wrote: post #152

My salary is missing. I earn well over $300k base salary, and H-1B'd in California, 2014. My salary is on visadoor, but not here. If my high salary is missing, what other high salaries are missing, too? Does this give us a distribution that is distorted low?

It's probably also missing lower salaries and middle salaries.

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

#158

Post by serve_yay »

aninteger wrote: post #118

These H1B engineers make more than me.. How do I become an H1B engineer? I was born in the USA and have the title "Senior Software Engineer".

They make more than you, in the region of the US where you live? If so, get a new job. (If you can't just get a new job, well, there's your answer.)

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

#159

Post by balls187 »

ild wrote: post #116
balls187 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those two combined make the 'need' for foreign tech workers seem very suspicious. Anecdotally speaking, it's hard find and hire good engineers in Seattle.

Depends on pay. For 75k - yeah, hard.

> Depends on pay. For 75k - yeah, hard.

Most positions don't list salary.

From my experience, it's not a problem getting candidates to accept offers, but instead get qualified candidates to extend offers to.

If there aren't enough engineers with skill X, and Y years experience, willing to work for pay Z, we need to adjust one of those 4 levers.

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

#160

Post by walshemj »

tjl wrote: post #146
TheCoelacanth wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There's a movement in the UK to protect the title of engineer. Plus, in the US, it varies from state to state. For example, see Case Number: B-32981 on this page http://engineers.texas.gov/da/da021512.html They were fined for using the term "foundation engineer". From a quick search it looks like California is one state where you're not allowed to use it if you're not licensed. I'm guessing a number of people are act…

That might be nice but to be blunt what has the Engineering council done for the last say 100 years.

I cant see any Uk government actually having the will to pass any laws enforcing this the number of STEM graduates in parliament and the house of lords is shockingly low

They also need to rescue Apprentices form its use by unskilled employers no Tesco you cannot have a Apprentices in shelf stacking to dodge paying the minimum wage.

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