Computerworld just had an interesting article... http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/labor/story/0,10801,103883,00.html My favorite quote from the article, IF there is strong demand for cheap labor? Is he kidding? There is. Since this is the earliest that they have ever run out of H-1b's it seems that the demand is stronger now than ever to bring in cheap labor. My guess is that Congress will get paid off to indeed put in place automatic increase triggers, though. No rule is in place that says the advanced degree can't come from a Hamilton either. Also, if American companies were looking for ONLY the best and brightest then why did that category not go first. This IS the reason the H-1B exists in the first place. Part of this bill is about illegal immigration. I believe they are trying to make a shift in terminology here to refer to immigration as only ILLEGAL immigration. Norm Matloff writes this...
From Matloff Newsletter... "To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter Longtime readers of this e-newsletter know that firms that scream the loudest that they need to hire H-1Bs because they lack qualified U.S. citizen/permanent resident job applicants often tend to be paying their H-1Bs the lowest. NexGen Infosys, the firm highlighted in the enclosed article, is an excellent example of this. Programmers Guild founder John Miano did an analysis of the entries for this firm in the Dept. of Labor H-1B database. He found an average wage for H-1B computer programmers at the firm of $45,295, compared to the national median for this profession of $72,403 (OES data, Bureau of Labor Statistics). By the way, that $27,000 difference makes the $4,500 Prasad complains about spending to hire an H-1B look tiny, especially given the fact that he saves that $27,000 EVERY YEAR that the H-1B is employed while the $4,500 is just a one-time cost. See my university law journal article, at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/MichJLawReform.pdf, Section V.D.4, for more details on why the issue of legal costs etc. is a red herring."
It won't raise wages I don't suppose the capitalists and their puppets in Congress would devise a plan to raise wages at the expense of profits!
Well, it's a median, decimon. An average as compared to the median salaries for other IT people across the entire board. So, I would guess we are looking at various levels of experience.
The original intent of H1B's were for high level engineers and highly educated personnel which were not available in the US. However, companies such as KLA-Tencor and others have abused them by hiring Manufacturing Engineers under the H1B umbrella and paying them $60G's a year (when the average US is making around 80K in the valley). (ME's are fairly low level engineers, even at the Senior level - it is an engineer more into process than actual design) H1B's are needed in some areas but the government has to come down hard on companies who abuse them. IMHO - a few CEO's being taken away in handcuffs for violating the law puts the fear of god into all executives. They know the law - follow it or face the consequences.
The law says H1Bs are "skilled" workers. Further, it defines "skilled" as having a 4 year degree or equivalent experience (3 years for 1 year of college). It also orders to pay foreign workers "prevailing wage" as defined by some people at Department of Labor. Now explain again, how the companies that "abuse" the law actually "break" it?
I think many of these CEO types are so self absorbed that they can't see straight and think themselves part of the "it happened to them...but i'm so smart they will never catch me" crowd. It's what self absorption and greed does to people.
I would say it already did H1-Bs are old hat as they have been largely replaced by the L-1. Much more effective and cheaper for the large firms that can open up a subsidiary overseas to serve as a pipeline for unlimited cheap labor. After recently scanning ceweekly and seeing large number of offerings for software contract labor in the 20's and 30's dollar per hour it would seem evident this tactic is working nicely for the capitalistic pigs. Repeal term limits and vote for George Bush again so we can all become rich or POOR as whatever the case may be.
Re: I would say it already did See my note under the "Stealth" thread in this forum on the L1. Thanks, Bing
