New Data Show How Firms Like Infosys and Tata Abuse the H-1B Program
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Re: New Data Show How Firms Like Infosys and Tata Abuse the H-1B Program
#2[deleted]
Re: New Data Show How Firms Like Infosys and Tata Abuse the H-1B Program
#3[deleted]
"Find me any company that doesn't have a difficult time sourcing well-qualified Rails developers, or experienced JavaScript experts. There is huge demand, not enough supply"
My problems with this statement is that you didn't mention pay or working conditions. Are they hiring for general talent, offering 200k a year with a nice private office? Are they offering 100k, forcing people to work in a loud open office where everyone can see your screen, requiring that you live in SF where the median priced house is over a mil, and demanding immediate plug and play developer with a a very narrow specialty skill set? I mean, they say they can't hire, but doesn't that mean they can't hire at the price they think they should get to pay?
I do agree with you that one shouldn't conclude a person isn't high talented in software if he or she doesn't have a grad degree. Obviously there are ludicrously talented developers who don't have grad degree, or even any degree of that matter. Software is like that.
Re: New Data Show How Firms Like Infosys and Tata Abuse the H-1B Program
#4[deleted]
> Find me any company that doesn't have a difficult time sourcing well-qualified Rails developers, or experienced JavaScript experts. There is huge demand, not enough supply
If any of that were true, wages would be going up, wouldn't they? Is there any company that couldn't hire someone by paying higher wages? Why are developer wages absolutely flat?
I find that the supply of brain surgeons for $10,000/year is quite limited. There's huge demand for brain surgeons at $10K, and not enough supply of brain surgeons willing to work for that wage. We've had the job ad ("Brain Surgeon Wanted: $10K/year") posted on Monster for months. Whatever shall I do? If only there was some solution.
Re: New Data Show How Firms Like Infosys and Tata Abuse the H-1B Program
#5[deleted]
If you read the H1-B requirements, it's supposedly about bringing in talent that's unavailable at any price. Not just seat-warmers who can be billed out with a hefty margin by a "body shop."
People with advanced degrees and unique skills should by all means be welcomed. Sending people back to India after they get degrees at MIT or Stanford is idiotic. But the stated intent of H1-Bs and cheap body shops are not compatible at all.
This article is all about morale-sucking, wage-depressing, quality-destroying indentured servitude that actually takes away the ability of R&D-oriented firms from obtaining H1-Bs for vastly more deserving people.
Re: New Data Show How Firms Like Infosys and Tata Abuse the H-1B Program
#6[deleted]
There's an even larger issue driving this problem:
As Table 1 shows, Infosys and Tata pay very low wages to their H-1B workers. The average wage for an H-1B employee at Infosys in FY13 was $70,882 and for Tata it was $65,565. Compare this to the average wage of a Computer Systems Analyst in Rosemead, CA (where SCE is located), which is $91,990 (according to the U.S. Department of Labor). That means Infosys and Tata save well over $20,000 per worker per year, by hiring an H-1B instead of a local U.S. worker earning the average wage. But at SCE specifically, the wage savings are much greater.
When the H-1B worker isn't employed directly by the company seeking the "savings" (for example, Infosys or Tata), and instead is employed by a middleman outsourcing company, the worker is essentially a victim of double exploitation. In these situations, wages for the h1B workers become even more dismal. The outsourcing company takes a huge cut of the workers' earnings (which are usually hourly and without benefits) and then uses threatening tactics to essentially "scare" these workers into outputting more in less time, without overtime, etc.
See also: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/04/03/176134...
Re: New Data Show How Firms Like Infosys and Tata Abuse the H-1B Program
#7[deleted]
>But the author here claims that "H-1B is not about skills or skills gap" and cites as evidence the fact that the vast majority of the approved applicants have only a Bachelor's degree. Perhaps he's not familiar with the current state of the software engineering market, where an advanced degree is in no way a prerequisite to become a top-rated engineer?
Sure, you can be a great developer with just a Bachelor degree or even no degree.
But between "they found all this top-rated engineers with mere Bachelors" and "they got some cheaper developers for their gruntwork by shopping abroad" my bet is very much on the second case.
It's what business owners do at every level, including manual labor where "top talent" doesn't matter much if at all...
BESIDES, and this makes your point moot, they pay them less. If they considered them "top talent" they'd pay them as they do American developers, regardless of if they have a degree or not.
Re: New Data Show How Firms Like Infosys and Tata Abuse the H-1B Program
#8I don't understand why they would compare the average wage of all H1B workers spread throughout the US against that of a particular job title (Computer Systems Analyst) in Los Angeles CA. Wages obviously vary by job title and location. No surprises that wages in CA are higher.
I searched to see what Infosys (1) and TCS (2) actually pay a "Computer Systems Analyst" and found:
- For Infosys, there's only one result for Houston where the salary came out to be ~105K.
- For TCS, it's around 85K-87K for San Franscisco area. Didn't find anything for Los Angeles.
I can't vouch for the correctness of data but the site says they get it from the Department of Labor. Infosys and TCS would probably be using different job titles on their H1B petitions to try and get a lower wage determination.
(1) http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=INFOSYS+LIMITED&job=COMPUTE...
(2) http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=TATA+CONSULTANCY+SERVICES+L...
Re: New Data Show How Firms Like Infosys and Tata Abuse the H-1B Program
#9[deleted]
Re: New Data Show How Firms Like Infosys and Tata Abuse the H-1B Program
#10in other news water is still wet