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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

#391

Post by acchow »

brilliantcode wrote: post #374
t1o5 wrote: post #29

ex H1B here. Yes Trump is right.(though I do not like him personally, he is right in this matter) Most of the corporate America is exploiting H1B workers. I have worked in one of those firms and I have friends in many other firms. These are not Indian body shops, these are American companies. Everyone's topic of discussion when we hangout is how our H1B visas were being exploited and there is nothing we could do abou…

I'm so pleased to hear this. Please, fellow American citizen hopefuls and potential American citizens tired of Trump, come on over to Vancouver or Toronto, we desperately need you to raise the decade old stagnation of tech worker's salaries. All is not well. You are going to have to deal with a significant salary cut around 40~50% not factoring in exchange rates. You also have to deal with small supply, high rent and…

Unless you make an obscene income (a few 100k) or lower your taxes by holding a mortgage, you'll be paying more taxes (which includes Medicaid, Social Security, etc.) in California than in Ontario or BC.

The rest of your post sounds about right.

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

#392

Post by pkaler »

vikiomega9 wrote: post #368
pkaler wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadian by birth. Indian by ethnicity. Vancouverite by choice. Let me know if you have questions about relocating, personal or professional.

So, dumb question, how easy is it to obtain a Canadian work permit/residency but continue working in the Valley?

Very hard. You need a US work permit to work in the Valley. Most early stage companies are not gonna have a Canadian subsidiary.

I do run a consulting company that consults to US companies. That is possible. But at that point, if you consult with startups, you won't be getting options.

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

#393

Post by ModusPwnens »

valuearb wrote: post #212
mdorazio wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing two key points here - 1) what are corporations doing with their increased profits as a result of tactics like abuse of the H1B system?, and 2) what portion of H1B salaries ends up back in the US economy vs. abroad? The net effect for the overall economy is only going to be better under the current H1B system if companies reinvest their profits into productive uses, which they haven't been [1].…

It's not about selling stuff to India, its about selling stuff to the world and Indian developers help us do that. And it's not H1B abuse it's what it's intended for. Since we slammed the door on immigration 50 years ago, this program was created to release a tiny amount of the massive pressure of super smart people world wide who want to come to the US and help make it better. It's funny that engineers don't get the…

If it's for the super smart people, it won't make a difference if we pay them a lot of money instead of the current standard, right? The super smart should get paid a wage that reflects how smart they are.

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

#394

Post by garyfirestorm »

chrishacken wrote: post #315
garyfirestorm wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is amazing! However I would like to point out, H1B is not only for Silicon Valley. There are many automotive companies which require foreign talent in specialized fields. Very smart people with multi-disciplinary knowledge are nowhere to be found in auto sector. Signal Processing and vibrations and programming and control systems understanding etc. is required to deal with things like active noise control which…

I believe the proposed solution to the H1B issue was to simply increase the minimum wage for H1B's to $140k. If a company is bringing over top-talent that is irreplaceable; surely that salary is justified. Otherwise, they probably don't need you as bad as they say they do.

140k might sound great in silicon valley. its enormous amount of money for a place like detroit. i am sure they will pay some of the people that sort of money to keep them here. but think about all others who will go back to their own countries and create new startups that will compete with the US industry.[1]

[1]http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/02/news/india/snapdeal-india-ku...

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

#395

Post by nostrebored »

Amezarak wrote: post #220
yummyfajitas wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your study is claiming that software engineer compensation rose no more rapidly than the population at as a whole (they also saw a 5% increase), then something is deeply wrong with your study. Note that "Computer and math occupations" is a broad catch-all term which includes all sorts of professions, such as: Computer User Support Specialist: Provide technical assistance to computer users. Answer questions or reso…

Here in flyover country, companies are paying new-grad software engineers 30-38k.

And how does cost of living compare? Median salary?

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

#396

Post by Amezarak »

nostrebored wrote: post #395
Amezarak wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in flyover country, companies are paying new-grad software engineers 30-38k.

And how does cost of living compare? Median salary?

Don't get me wrong, the cost of living is much lower than SV, but there are several major industries here that pay 2-3x that rate for less skilled work. Even many service-type jobs pay better. A buddy of mine that dropped out of college was making more money than I did right out of school managing McDonald's.

I personally left software engineering (regretfully, I love it, and still do what personal projects I can) to do a government job that is at least somewhat technical that constituted a massive raise over my old salary - and as I worked there for a few years and was a high performer, I did get several big raises before leaving.

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

#397

Post by garyfirestorm »

baby wrote: post #345
t1o5 wrote: post #29

ex H1B here. Yes Trump is right.(though I do not like him personally, he is right in this matter) Most of the corporate America is exploiting H1B workers. I have worked in one of those firms and I have friends in many other firms. These are not Indian body shops, these are American companies. Everyone's topic of discussion when we hangout is how our H1B visas were being exploited and there is nothing we could do abou…

> the long wait for GreenCard (10 years). Can you explain this? I'm currently waiting for a greencard.

green cards are equally distributed to all countries. 7%? hence the amount of time you will wait is dependent on where you are from. for india/china, i believe its close to 8-9 years. but if you come from a country where no one applies for green card, chances are this process will be done in 6 months.

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

#398

Post by garyfirestorm »

verst wrote: post #337
nostrademons wrote: post #319

It's worth putting in a shout-out to Lofgren's H1B bill: https://lofgren.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentI... Far from "emasculating" it like the article suggests, the "bucketing" system in Lofgren's bill is designed to put upward pressure on all wages, including those of American citizens. The way that it works is that positions paying in the top 2/3 of the average wage for their geographical area will ge…

I'm a big fan of her bill for the above (market-based) approach and other reasons: - F-1 student visa becomes dual-intent. This is huge! Essentially an employer could now sponsor permanent residency directly out of a PhD program (or even college assuming sufficient work experience for employment-based immigration). No need to first get a H-1B. - It appears that switching employers while on the H-1B becomes easier (th…

this week* unless trump does something to this process ;) just kidding. congrats!

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

#399

Post by mywittyname »

digler999 wrote: post #373
mseebach wrote: post #310

Every time the topic comes up, I wonder how many of the HN'ers who are cross at H-1B workers because they are depressing wages are intellectually consistent (and honest) enough to accept that this position is part and parcel of the same system of nationalist thought that leads to a wall to Mexico and steeply increased tariffs on chinese import; of "America First"? If you find yourself reconciling the idea of protecti…

The way I saw it, the "build a wall" campaign was more about mobilizing the frustration many felt about cultural changes and (perceived) social costs of illegal immigration and less about "they're taking our jobs" (though I'm not saying that argument was never made). I think it was about people becoming upset at seeing their communities change for the worse, seeing signs and publications coming up in spanish, seeing…

I think you're spot on, but I do have to question how much of this is empirical and how much of it is misdirected blame at the loss of social status these people's families have suffered.

In other words, would we see the same political fervor from these people if they had a median income of ~150k/yr?

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

#400

Post by rhapsodic »

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…

Wow:

http://www.airbnbhell.com/i-was-gang-raped-in-budapest-and-a...

Airbnb needs to be regulated in the interest of public safety.

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