I dont know why Bernie has flipped and is now parroting the immigrants stealing jobs meme. We dont have to guess we can easily look at the h1b rates and see they aren’t replacing Americans with low wages. The h1b wages are very high across the different industries and these industries havent had wage drops due to h1b workers coming over.
How is saying “replacing good paying american jobs with low wage indentured servants from abroad” not exactly that? I agree with Bernie on the servant part because of the visa restrictions but they’re paid well enough and they’re skilled enough that I dont feel sorry for them as they’ve got plenty of prospects for where to live.
Because the h1b visas are designed to lock in the person by sponsoring the h1b. So the company can basically pay you less than what the job is worth and you can’t say shit about it or they pull your h1b sponsorship and you get ejected from the country. It’s %100 indentured servitude.
Yeah I sort of agree with the lockin part but I wouldnt use the harsh term indentured servitude became theyre coming over with the expectation its a working visa not a permanent visa.
But that wasn’t tbe part i cared about. I care that the stats show the companies are still paying high salaries and the average pay for the non h1b workers is still going up because the demand for skilled workers is still high. Bernie is completely wrong to claim otherwise and he should know better.
That’s the issue. Their salaries are usually 50% of what they’re worth to citizens. If a company has to pay a citizen 300k but can get an h1b for 150k then they’re gonna go for the h1b even if they’re the weaker candidate. It drives down salaries.
I think the problem you’re running into is that your definition of “low wage” isn’t in reference to their applied fields. I don’t think it’s right to assume that people are going to compare a pilot’s low wage to someone doing manual labor.
The point he is making is that corporations aren’t hiring people under h1b because there’s a lack of skilled labour. They’re hiring people under h1b because they help drive down labour costs, or they don’t want to absorb the cost of training new skilled labour.
If it were really because there was a lack of skilled labour, and demand was so high, then there shouldn’t be a gap in pay between H1b and local skilled labour. If we want the best and brightest from everywhere, why are we paying the best and brightest lower than the industry standard?
H1b program doesnt hire that many workers first of all its a tiny fraction of workers. Secondly employers need to apply for the visa for the position before they can search overseas. If thats getting approved then there isnt the local talent to fill those roles. This doesnt drive down the local labour costs because its still easier to hire locally than import labour via h1b system.
There is evidence I found suggests the h1b workers are paid 15-30% below market and that should be enforced better. But its still a win win for all parties, employer fills their role, employee gets a high paying job.
Out of all the things to pearl clutch over I think this one is just bad in every regard. Especially the people in here calling it indentured servitude. Its could be more generous to the foreign workers but ultimately its fine and doesnt seem to be harming wages or exploiting and enslaving foreign workers.
H1b program doesnt hire that many workers first of all its a tiny fraction of workers. Secondly employers need to apply for the visa for the position before they can search overseas.
Yes, but only because there’s an actual cap of how many H1b are allowed each year.
If thats getting approved then there isnt the local talent to fill those roles.
There is no such requirement for a visa being approved…
This doesnt drive down the local labour costs because its still easier to hire locally than import labour via h1b system.
This ignores the real value of h1b for management. Besides being able to pay less for talent, you also have a lot more control over the worker. They aren’t able to take better offers or join/start labor organizations, and turn around is often one most costly aspects of jobs with higher education levels. Locking in a highly educated professional with little to no room for advancement for 6 years is going to be highly attractive to any manager.
There is evidence I found suggests the h1b workers are paid 15-30% below market and that should be enforced better.
The real problem is that the 15-30% likely isn’t accounting for the experience of the worker. I work in a field that requires a lot of education and licensing, and when initially starting a career you really should be getting about a 20-25% raise every two to three years. A lot of the times this is done by getting offers from different organizations, which just isn’t an option for H1b workers.
But its still a win win for all parties, employer fills their role, employee gets a high paying job
I think it’s naive to believe that this isn’t a ploy for employers to pay less for specialized labour. The employer wins, the H1b worker only wins in a sense that they are being exploited in a currency with higher value, and local labour loses a worker that could join a labour organization.
Especially the people in here calling it indentured servitude.
I mean, it’s basically as close to indentured servitude as you could get in 21 century America "a system where individuals contracted to work for a set period, typically in exchange for passage to a new country, room, board, and sometimes other benefits like land or tools. "
fine and doesnt seem to be harming wages or exploiting and enslaving foreign workers.
Eh, I would say the only thing stopping it from doing so on a much greater scale in that there is a cap on the how many H1b are made available…a cap which a lot of tech moguls are trying to dramatically elevate.
We dont have to guess we can easily look at the h1b rates and see they aren’t replacing Americans with low wages.
The site you linked very explicitly disagrees with you. Compare those h1b salaries with average salaries at the companies/positions they’re working for.
The h1b wages are very high across the different industries
Nobody has ever claimed they get paid minimum wage or something. Doesn’t change the fact that they are cheaper than non-h1b workers virtually 100% of the time.
I dont think it disagrees with me. The jobs being replaced were not able to be filled by local workers.
H1b workers are cheaper for a variety of reasons. Once local worker market is exhausted and employers search overseas the demand supply equation changes, the US has the highest paying jobs generally so what is a 15-30% before rate salary in the us is a high salary overses. There is the clause that these workers must be paid within the averages of their position and there are examples of companies breaking that. Thats an enforcement issue and not reflective of the program.
I don’t think Bernie can make the claim that h1b program steals American jobs without also making the claim that low skill immigrants steal American jobs and I dont think he’d make that claim. The h1b at least has conditions on finding local talent first.
I havent been able to find good stats to Compare h1b salaries vs the roles and I dont find glassdoor to be reliable. I’d guess that for dev work there is probably a ton of the core devs working locally on big salaries and the h1b workers are being brought on as temps for specific projects so their salaries are below the average for what that company pays for devs overall.
The jobs being replaced were not able to be filled by local workers.
According to…? There is no requirement saying that the companies must attempt to place jobs locally beforehand.
Once local worker market is exhausted and employers search overseas the demand supply equation changes, the US has the highest paying jobs generally so what is a 15-30% before rate salary in the us is a high salary overses.
Yeah… But the most common occupation listed is for it/computer science which is a already a highly saturated labour market. There are plenty of highly educated and experienced locals to hire from, companies like amazon just don’t want to shell out the money they were spending when people were aggressively headhunting during the pandemic.
There is the clause that these workers must be paid within the averages of their position and there are examples of companies breaking that. Thats an enforcement issue and not reflective of the program.
But the DOL is responsible for enforcement and the program. How can it not be reflective of the program? This study goes into depth explaining how corporations take advantage of H1b to harm the labour market.
No, the rule is that it must match the “prevailing wage” which is the average amount of is the basic hourly rate paid on public works projects to a majority of workers engaged in a particular craft. Public work is usually significantly lower than private work.
"The two lowest permissible H-1B prevailing wage levels are significantly lower than the local median salaries surveyed for occupations. The two lowest H-1B wage levels set by DOL correspond to the 17th and 34th wage percentiles locally for an occupation. This translates into salaries that are significantly lower than local median salaries—17% to 34% lower on average for computer occupations (which are among the most common H-1B occupations). H-1B employers can reap significant savings by selecting one of the two lowest wage levels instead of the Level 3 wage (the median, or 50th-percentile, wage) or the Level 4 wage (above the median, at the 67th percentile).
h1b workers are being brought on as temps for specific projects so their salaries are below the average for what that company pays for devs overall.
Companies are hiring them from 3rd party outsourcing firms as a cheap labour pool, not as temps for specific projects.
“Outsourcing firms make heavy use of the H-1B program. Half of the top 30 H-1B employers use an outsourcing business model to provide staff for third-party clients, rather than employing H-1B workers directly to fill a special need at the company that applies for the visa.”
dropdown menus?! explain to me!
I dont know why Bernie has flipped and is now parroting the immigrants stealing jobs meme. We dont have to guess we can easily look at the h1b rates and see they aren’t replacing Americans with low wages. The h1b wages are very high across the different industries and these industries havent had wage drops due to h1b workers coming over.
that is not what sanders is saying
How is saying “replacing good paying american jobs with low wage indentured servants from abroad” not exactly that? I agree with Bernie on the servant part because of the visa restrictions but they’re paid well enough and they’re skilled enough that I dont feel sorry for them as they’ve got plenty of prospects for where to live.
Because the h1b visas are designed to lock in the person by sponsoring the h1b. So the company can basically pay you less than what the job is worth and you can’t say shit about it or they pull your h1b sponsorship and you get ejected from the country. It’s %100 indentured servitude.
Yeah I sort of agree with the lockin part but I wouldnt use the harsh term indentured servitude became theyre coming over with the expectation its a working visa not a permanent visa.
But that wasn’t tbe part i cared about. I care that the stats show the companies are still paying high salaries and the average pay for the non h1b workers is still going up because the demand for skilled workers is still high. Bernie is completely wrong to claim otherwise and he should know better.
Can you define indentured servitude for me
An individual forced to work without pay for a contracted period.
Theyre on a working visa and can return home whenever they want. They can switch employers whenever they want. They aren’t slaves ffs.
That’s the issue. Their salaries are usually 50% of what they’re worth to citizens. If a company has to pay a citizen 300k but can get an h1b for 150k then they’re gonna go for the h1b even if they’re the weaker candidate. It drives down salaries.
I think the problem you’re running into is that your definition of “low wage” isn’t in reference to their applied fields. I don’t think it’s right to assume that people are going to compare a pilot’s low wage to someone doing manual labor.
The point he is making is that corporations aren’t hiring people under h1b because there’s a lack of skilled labour. They’re hiring people under h1b because they help drive down labour costs, or they don’t want to absorb the cost of training new skilled labour.
If it were really because there was a lack of skilled labour, and demand was so high, then there shouldn’t be a gap in pay between H1b and local skilled labour. If we want the best and brightest from everywhere, why are we paying the best and brightest lower than the industry standard?
H1b program doesnt hire that many workers first of all its a tiny fraction of workers. Secondly employers need to apply for the visa for the position before they can search overseas. If thats getting approved then there isnt the local talent to fill those roles. This doesnt drive down the local labour costs because its still easier to hire locally than import labour via h1b system.
There is evidence I found suggests the h1b workers are paid 15-30% below market and that should be enforced better. But its still a win win for all parties, employer fills their role, employee gets a high paying job.
Out of all the things to pearl clutch over I think this one is just bad in every regard. Especially the people in here calling it indentured servitude. Its could be more generous to the foreign workers but ultimately its fine and doesnt seem to be harming wages or exploiting and enslaving foreign workers.
Yes, but only because there’s an actual cap of how many H1b are allowed each year.
There is no such requirement for a visa being approved…
This ignores the real value of h1b for management. Besides being able to pay less for talent, you also have a lot more control over the worker. They aren’t able to take better offers or join/start labor organizations, and turn around is often one most costly aspects of jobs with higher education levels. Locking in a highly educated professional with little to no room for advancement for 6 years is going to be highly attractive to any manager.
The real problem is that the 15-30% likely isn’t accounting for the experience of the worker. I work in a field that requires a lot of education and licensing, and when initially starting a career you really should be getting about a 20-25% raise every two to three years. A lot of the times this is done by getting offers from different organizations, which just isn’t an option for H1b workers.
I think it’s naive to believe that this isn’t a ploy for employers to pay less for specialized labour. The employer wins, the H1b worker only wins in a sense that they are being exploited in a currency with higher value, and local labour loses a worker that could join a labour organization.
I mean, it’s basically as close to indentured servitude as you could get in 21 century America "a system where individuals contracted to work for a set period, typically in exchange for passage to a new country, room, board, and sometimes other benefits like land or tools. "
Eh, I would say the only thing stopping it from doing so on a much greater scale in that there is a cap on the how many H1b are made available…a cap which a lot of tech moguls are trying to dramatically elevate.
The site you linked very explicitly disagrees with you. Compare those h1b salaries with average salaries at the companies/positions they’re working for.
Nobody has ever claimed they get paid minimum wage or something. Doesn’t change the fact that they are cheaper than non-h1b workers virtually 100% of the time.
I dont think it disagrees with me. The jobs being replaced were not able to be filled by local workers.
H1b workers are cheaper for a variety of reasons. Once local worker market is exhausted and employers search overseas the demand supply equation changes, the US has the highest paying jobs generally so what is a 15-30% before rate salary in the us is a high salary overses. There is the clause that these workers must be paid within the averages of their position and there are examples of companies breaking that. Thats an enforcement issue and not reflective of the program.
I don’t think Bernie can make the claim that h1b program steals American jobs without also making the claim that low skill immigrants steal American jobs and I dont think he’d make that claim. The h1b at least has conditions on finding local talent first.
I havent been able to find good stats to Compare h1b salaries vs the roles and I dont find glassdoor to be reliable. I’d guess that for dev work there is probably a ton of the core devs working locally on big salaries and the h1b workers are being brought on as temps for specific projects so their salaries are below the average for what that company pays for devs overall.
According to…? There is no requirement saying that the companies must attempt to place jobs locally beforehand.
Yeah… But the most common occupation listed is for it/computer science which is a already a highly saturated labour market. There are plenty of highly educated and experienced locals to hire from, companies like amazon just don’t want to shell out the money they were spending when people were aggressively headhunting during the pandemic.
But the DOL is responsible for enforcement and the program. How can it not be reflective of the program? This study goes into depth explaining how corporations take advantage of H1b to harm the labour market.
No, the rule is that it must match the “prevailing wage” which is the average amount of is the basic hourly rate paid on public works projects to a majority of workers engaged in a particular craft. Public work is usually significantly lower than private work.
"The two lowest permissible H-1B prevailing wage levels are significantly lower than the local median salaries surveyed for occupations. The two lowest H-1B wage levels set by DOL correspond to the 17th and 34th wage percentiles locally for an occupation. This translates into salaries that are significantly lower than local median salaries—17% to 34% lower on average for computer occupations (which are among the most common H-1B occupations). H-1B employers can reap significant savings by selecting one of the two lowest wage levels instead of the Level 3 wage (the median, or 50th-percentile, wage) or the Level 4 wage (above the median, at the 67th percentile).
Companies are hiring them from 3rd party outsourcing firms as a cheap labour pool, not as temps for specific projects.
“Outsourcing firms make heavy use of the H-1B program. Half of the top 30 H-1B employers use an outsourcing business model to provide staff for third-party clients, rather than employing H-1B workers directly to fill a special need at the company that applies for the visa.”