H-1B Cap Reached Today; Didn't Get In? Too Bad 512
First time accepted submitter Dawn Kawamoto writes "Employers stampeding into the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service to get their H-1B petitions filed before the cap is reached are getting the door slammed in their face today. The cap was hit in near record time of 5 days, compared to the 10 weeks it took last year to have more than enough petitions to fulfill the combined cap of 85,000 statutory and advanced degree H-1B petitions. While U.S. tech workers scream that they're losing out on jobs as H-1B workers are hired, employers are countering that the talent pool is lacking and they need to increase the cap. Of course, Congress is wrangling in on this one as to whether it's time to raise the bar."
consulting companies, (Score:3, Informative)
And who uses the "consulting companies"? Your local company. They use these "consulting companies" for their IT needs.
And in the meantime they bitch and moan about the lack of local talent.
Listen folks: business people are two faced liars. Anyone who defends them is the same.
Re:talent! (Score:1, Informative)
80k per year minimum. The big tech corps pay their H-1Bs more than that already. All this bitching about foreign workers stinks of racism more than reality. No doubt their are companies abusing this, but the companies always cited in the complaints (Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook) pay their H-1B (or TN1, E3, etc) workers more than the minimums that any one ever proposes.
And yes, they do pay more than that IN REALITY.
Re:talent! (Score:3, Informative)
Well, there's a trick to it. Something I came across, by accident, was something of an interesting read (i.e. was not something I went looking for). Apparently, a number of firms have requirements for special software that is only available through that firm...you can see where this is headed. So if the firm, which is posting the job, lists experience in this software, as a requirement, software that is not readily available to other native applicants...they manage to fulfill the letter of the law (they didn't find any 'qualified' applicants), while violating the spirit of the law.
Re:Both opinions are true (Score:4, Informative)
So are US workers incapable of or unwilling to make those same choices?
An excellent question indeed.
Yes, the US workers are capable but unwilling to make those same choices, for several reasons.
First, the H1B worker knows exactly what he is dealing with. Three years working as a slave, and then I'm RICH!1! back in India or wherever. I can live for three, or even six years like that if I know that this is a voluntary and temporary issue. I also know what I'm buying - I'm selling my comfort and buying future comfort in much larger quantity. If I don't want this anymore I can quit at any time, and the DHS will not forbid me to leave the USA.
Second, H1B workers are required to work or to get out of the country. They cannot linger here and live on social assistance. But US citizens *are* eligible for all kinds of social assistance. At some point it is more profitable to collect welfare instead of working. I knew a guy around here who was on welfare. I found a temp job for him, with a good possibility of going full time. He refused! He said that social security money is more dependable.
This means that the very existence of payments (food stamps, money, living, etc.) to able-bodied workers washes them out of the market of jobs that pay less than that entitlement. Actually, the value of the payments is higher than that. You get money for nothing - you don't have to expend your labor; this means that you get the payments + the cost of your labor as you price it internally. The employer has to beat that number!
The employer is also burdened with minimum wages. This measure subverts the free market of labor. I am forbidden by law to sell my labor, whatever cheap it might be in terms of its value, for less than $7.25 per hour. Doesn't matter if I am suffering from some malady or the other and only can work at 20% of efficiency of a healthy worker. Who will hire me? But in a fair labor market I would be hired for the appropriate salary, and it would be fair to everyone involved. Same would happen to a secretary who works from home and answers five calls per day. Are you willing to pay her $1,160 per month for such a hard work? If no, would you pay her $100/mo? It's a good thing to have a human secretary who can deal with callers in a reasonable way, even if your company is very small.
I'm sure there are more reasons to do what people do. I didn't even mention keeping up with the Joneses, but that is an important factor as well.
Re:talent! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:talent! (Score:5, Informative)
If you want someone who knows subnetting right out of school hire from a trade school. If you want someone who will be able to troubleshoot an issue that he/she has never seen before, hire a college graduate.
Re:They're not who you think (Score:5, Informative)
From the perspective of a friend who lives in Silicon Valley, what is especially upsetting to her about the requested increase in H-1B and other visas (whose blatant goal it is to import more "high-tech" workers) is the support it receives from high profile high-tech leaders like Bill Gates, John Chambers, Eric Schmidt, and other. Those men made billions off the backs of American high tech workers, and they are using deception and outright lies to support their cause to bring in more H-1B workers. This is a pure race to the bottom, for salary, and skill. There is *some* need for H-1B's, but it's a mere fraction of the current 85,000 cap. This is an agregious attempt to displace qualified American workers, period. Read on if you want accurate information about this outrage.
Some of the information presented in the following links would shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans $10TRILLION dollars, since 1975 (fromProfessor Norm Matloff's study (UC Davis).. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.
One of the most respected technology pundits in Silicon Valley: http://www.cringely.com/2012/10/23/what-americans-dont-know-about-h-1b-visas-could-hurt-us-all/ [cringely.com]
Watch this attorney and his consultants teach corporations how to manipulate the law to replace qualified American workers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU [youtube.com]
Here's more abuse of the L-1 Visa (H1-B's are only the tip of the iceberg http://economyincrisis.org/content/l-visa-programs-brimming-abuses [economyincrisis.org]
Professor Norman Matloff's extremely well documented studies: http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/h1b.html [ucdavis.edu]