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Trump Is Right: Silicon Valley Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

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Re: Trump Is Right: Silicon Valley Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#101

Post by lowbloodsugar »

sulam wrote: post #46

Speaking as someone who has hired H1-B's in the past, there really do seem to be two tiers. There's the companies/organizations that are truly abusing the system and then there are the traditional tech companies who are happy to hire anyone qualified, no matter where they are from, and pay and promote them the same as other employees. They also sponsor green cards. Competition between these employers has gotten to th…

They are only being paid fair market value because the H-1Bs are suppressing the fair market value. Without the H-1Bs you would have had to pay more, and that "more" would have been the fair market value.

You say "matching Netflix offers is very expensive": again, no, matching Netflix offers is the fair market rate, and without H-1Bs, the rate would be higher. Indeed, unless you are a well known company, you should expect to have to pay more than Netflix, since Netflix's offer also prices in the stability and prestige of working at Netflix.

Which is to say, the "expensive" Netflix wage is actually less than fair market value.

Re: Trump Is Right: Silicon Valley Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#102

Post by jeandejean »

throwawaydbfif wrote: post #24
zzleeper wrote: post #12

> Their lobbyists claim there is a “talent shortage” among Americans and thus that the industry needs more of such work visas. This is patently false There is no way SV would have grown to what it is now without foreign talent. So the shortage has been real for the last 30+ years. Not sure why this point is still controversial. > most Silicon Valley firms sponsor their H-1B workers, who hold a temporary visa, for U.S…

The endless talent shortage is a farce. Every tech company I've worked at rejects well over 90% of their applicants and has an interview process that would be considered insane in almost any other field. I would say the opposite is true based solely on hiring practices. Look at Google for example, who hire around 1/5000 people that apply. The shortage is artificially maintained because it works in companies favor. It…

Tech companies also reject applicants because they are "software engineers wannabe" that are just a bunch of phonies coveting the high salaries.

Tying up visas effects only to wage diminution is just a big mistake. But I can't wait to witness the effect of being a lot more selective on visas. We'll see!

Re: Trump Is Right: Silicon Valley Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#103

Post by rhapsodic »

wnevets wrote: post #86
rhapsodic wrote: post #75

The hubris and self-righteousness of SV billionaire bully-boys has reached the point where I'll favor practically anything that takes them down a peg. I'd love to see the Republican controlled federal government treat them the way the Democrats have treated, for example, the gun and coal industries. If a gun manufacturer should be held liable for the results of people misusing a gun, then why shouldn't Airbnb be held…

>treat them the way the Democrats have treated, for example, the gun and coal industries. You want more strongly written letters?

>You want more strongly written letters?

In 2008, candidate Obama remarked, “If somebody wants to build a coal-fired power plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them. … Under my plan … electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” Four major coal companies have filed for bankruptcy in just the past 15 months.

http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/h-sterling-burnett/obama-d...

Re: Trump Is Right: Silicon Valley Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#104

Post by t1o5 »

orcdork wrote: post #77
t1o5 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"lottery based skilled visa" sums it up. I am not assuming that you are in Detroit. I used to work remotely for an Automotive company in Detroit for their telematics unit. Some colleagues I know commute from Windsor.

Lottery based skilled visa means that there's many more skilled people on the other side, and less spots for them. Unless you have a way of quantifying extremely small differences in skill (and keeping the process balanced), I don't see how you feel a lottery is unfair.

Points based system is the right way of quantifying skills & it seems to be working well for Canada.

for ex: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/express-entry/grid-crs.asp

Re: Trump Is Right: Silicon Valley Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#105

Post by ihsw »

tomtheelder wrote: post #30
ars wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So when he does something you disagree with, he's evil? When he does something you agree with he's still evil, he just did it accidentally? And this is your chosen approach regarding people who disagree with you?

You're really putting words in their mouth, they never called him evil, not by a long shot. They were just pointing out that this is only one potentially positive facet of a whole series of deeply questionable policies on trade and immigration. Not a hugely productive comment, but not worthy of the scorn you gave it.

I don't find his efforts to secure the country's borders questionable in the least, as a matter of fact I find it refreshing that a political leader follows through on his campaign promises.

Re: Trump Is Right: Silicon Valley Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#107

Post by myf01d »

Trump asks the right questions: the danger of globalism, incredibly high global debt, the danger of radical islam, the overestimation of Russia's danger on the US and EU, the questionable usefulness of NATO, the economic manipulation by China, he just has the wrong answers.

Re: Trump Is Right: Silicon Valley Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#108

Post by mdorazio »

thecardcheat wrote: post #23

> The industry lobbyists’ ace-in-the-hole argument is that if they can’t hire more H-1Bs, they’ll ship the work overseas. But for projects on which H-1Bs are hired in the U.S., face-to-face interaction (between themselves and their American coworkers) is crucial. That is why employers bring H-1Bs to the U.S. in the first place rather than sending the work abroad, where the wages are even cheaper. Considering the grow…

Keep in mind, though, that a lot of H1Bs are being used as replacements for a typical IT department, not as the type of staff you could easily offshore, even with remote working technology. For example, at a Fortune 100 company I did quite a bit of consulting for, fully 60% of their IT staff was Infosys and Congnizant H1Bs. You could make the argument that some portion of those positions could be offshored, but realistically no large company would do that - they want people on-site too much. I don't think the rise of tools is really changing this mentality fast enough to make remote/offshore work a real possibility here in the near term.

Re: Trump Is Right: Silicon Valley Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#109

Post by crusso »

arjie wrote: post #67
anjc wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are studies performed on this stuff by actual economists out there, to save you using self-reporting surveys from online recruitment companies. http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-i... http://www.epi.org/publication/pm195-stem-labor-shortages-mi... >The average hourly wage for college-educated workers in computer and math occupations rose 5.3 percent over 11 years, from $37.27 in 2000 to…

2000? At the peak of the dot-com boom?

Yeah, that's the part that had me scratching my head. Any study that makes no attempt to smooth out dramatic outlier time periods is highly suspect.

Re: Trump Is Right: Silicon Valley Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#110

Post by ryandrake »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #81
ansy wrote: post #42

Could H-1B be more effective? Yes. It could definitely be more fair to the visa holder and do a better job of attracting and retaining the most skilled workers. But I also think it's totally wrong to say we don't have a technology labor shortage. The best evidence of this are the salary numbers for people with math and science degrees. It's not because physics and math suddenly got more valuable. It's because tech is…

There is a luxury yacht shortage. I say this because I want to run a luxury yacht business and I'm unable to buy a luxury yacht for the $10 that I have in my pocket. There is a Ferrari shortage because I want to start a "Uber With Ferraris" business, and I'm unable to buy a Ferrari with the $10 that I have in my pocket. There is a developer shortage because I want to start a software business and I am unable to buy a…

Thank you. The supply of employees is only constrained by employers' willingness to pay. At the current prevailing wages, supply is not meeting demand. This does not necessarily mean there is a shortage.
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