H-1B visa use cuts U.S. programmer, software engineer wages by up to 6%

[Newsjock]

Source: Computerworld

The use of H-1B workers by U.S. companies is decreasing wages for computer programmers, system analysts and software engineers by as much as 6%, according to a study released this week by researchers at New York University's Stern School of Business and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The researchers said they found evidence that the wages are falling by accessing tens of thousands of resumes provided by a "leading online job search site" they wouldn't identify, to gain demographic and wage data of individual companies. They took all that information and combined it with government and other public data sources, including H-1B visa use and outsourcing, to get what they termed a "micro-data" view of what is going on in public companies that hire visa holders and offshore work.

The report's authors said that they are not using the study to take a position on H-1B visa use and do not discount other research that has found that H-1B visa-holders are helping U.S. competitiveness.

"In this paper, we simply sought to dispel the myth that globalization generates no losers," wrote Prasanna Tambe, an assistant professor of information, operations and management sciences at the Stern School, and Lorin Hitt, a professor of operations and information management at Wharton. The authors said that it's important that policy-makers understand the wage impact of the H-1B visa program.


Read more: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131729

[AzDar]

1. Globalization = race to the bottom.

:kick:

[Xipe Totec]

5. It's only a matter of time,

before the moron managers realize that cutting wages means nobody has money to buy their crappy products.

[Angleae]

19. Problem is that managers live in their own fanatsy world.

"Promoted to their level of incompetence." pretty well sums up managers. I swear the US is a living Dilbert strip.

[ihavenobias]

13. Exactly.

K & R

[davidwparker]

2. "what is going on in public companies" - Shocker. Laying off US workers in

one US city, moving the function to another US city, and filling the positions with an H-1B Visa recipient.

Bob went away. Sanjay took his place.

Bye Bob! Nice knowing you. Good luck making your mortgage payment. Bailed out banks will now own your house too.

[NeoConsSuck]

3. And then there's IBM

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3804002

[CubicleGuy]

4. H-1B visa-holders are helping U.S. competitiveness

Of course they are. They keep the American employers from having to pay out 6% more in salaries.

I could really use a 6% raise right about now.

[Deja Q]

18. Yup. When people say "We're competing with the world", it's not about the talent.

It's about cutting costs and putting people into poverty.

There are things I won't ever need or want in life (a big ass speed boat with 25L motor or whatever0), but good grief... other countries think $12/hr is manna from heaven and the media froths at how other countries are being developed and that H1Bs don't seem terribly sad when they come here, as if they are being coerced to do so. Therefore our cost of living needs to match the developing countries' costs of living too.

Make it truly global.

[Xithras]

25. Maybe, but H1-b's do have an upside for the economy

Many companies would simply outsource their development offshore if not for H1-B's...the cheaper H1-B labor is the only reason they're still sticking around. While H1-B's have many problems, they do contribute to the economy while they're here by buying goods and services from other sectors of the economy. If those jobs were simply outsourced, those funds would totally leave the American economy.

Reducing H1-B's is a useless gesture if it isn't also accompanied by efforts to stifle overseas outsourcing.

[riverdeep]

26. The supposed reason companies give for using H1-Bs is

that there aren't enough qualified Americans to do the job, so they have to export. One, I highly doubt that, and two, if it is true, why aren't we educating and training OUR people for these jobs? This is strictly about increasing profit for the top of the pyramid, while pitting those at the bottom against each other.

All those people that are here 'contributing to the economy' are negated by having Americans who can't contribute or contribute as much because they are now unemployed or underemployed. You're right though, that trade policies and lax attention to corporate charters are part of the reason they get away with this.

[AndyTiedye]

27. If They are Bringing in H1B's and Laying People Off the Same Jobs at the Same Time

then someone at the company is committing perjury, at least.
Since their boss told them to do it, it's conspiracy.

Seems to me a determined Federal prosecutor could put a stop to this nonsense.
Once someone goes to the slammer for signing off that there are no qualified
Americans the day after they just laid off a bunch, this H1B abuse will stop REAL FAST.

[ProudDad]

29. I'd slam a HUGE excise tax

on any corporation's profits derived from outsourcing.

If they don't like it, let them f*cking move...

And then I'd use the money to create true Green Jobs in USAmerica -- building a sustainable infrastructure for the time after Peak Oil!

[OhioChick]

30. H-1B's (Indians in particular) are sending money home...

"Moreover, the millions of Indians living overseas send back more than $30 billion a year in remittances, making up 3 per cent of the country's GDP, according to estimates by the International Labor Organization."

http://www.rediff.com/money/2009/mar/07bpo-worries-grow-about-obamas-outsourcing-policies.htm

[musette_sf]

6. K&R

H-1B MUST END

[ryanmuegge]

7. Yeah, that'll stimulate the economy.

[Deja Q]

17. You forgot the sarcasm tag...

:)


(Though I think it's obvious that wage cuts only lead to stagnation... anybody following the path of the last 30+ years would be able to figure things out right enough.)

[high density]

8. Computerworld is all over this H-1B visa issue.

Their reporting on the subject has been excellent.

[OhioChick]

10. It sure has. I've been keeping up with them daily. n/t

[ixion]

9. uh, try 20-30%, not 6%

[OhioChick]

11. 6%, yeah right.

A hell of a lot more than that.

[ardvark]

12. cuts it WAY more than 6 percent

but at least it's a step in the right direction that it's being said that it hurts wages

if it were only 6 percent, I wouldnt have liked it, but I would have just dealt with it

[w4rma]

14. Not "up to". It's AT LEAST. And it does worse than that by outright destroying skill building

opportunities.

[PSPS]

15. Cuts wages 100% for those displaced by this scam.

[The Sushi Bandit]

16. It also affects project management software users

Construction PM consulting companies activly seek-out indian talent to use complex software programs like Primavera's P3 and P6

[mainegreen]

20. At least 6%.

[Oregone]

21. Noooooo. You don't say, eh?

Not to mention, it also leaves a few of us unemployed.

[Triana]

22. ...and that's exactly why H-1B visas get used. n/t

[ChromeFoundry]

23. Did they really even need a study? I could have told them that years ago. n/t

[DatManFromNawlins]

24. I used to be a headhunter

6% is a pipe dream. Try 25-35%.

I saw entire teams of developers get wiped out once the functional work on a project was done. They'd bring in US citizens to work with the financial consultants to lay down a strategy on how to tackle the technical details of a project, then fire the technical staff and bring in a bunch of H1-Bs at cut rate salaries. In contracting terms, the bill rate (H1-B employee's salary plus markup for finder's fee) of most H1-B shops was less than a lot of the US contractors' pay rates.

Your average software developer puts in just as much time in an average working week as your average teacher does, even when you put in the time they spend grading papers at home. Why? Because to stay on top of the job market, and because companies generally don't believe in training IT employees because they view IT as a cost center, software developers routinely have to study new techniques and learn about new technology on their own time. Teachers have to buy extra paper and pens? Software developers have to buy expensive books to train themselves with.

Oh, and they don't get 150 days a year off. Companies are going to end up driving the IT market out of the country due to sheer rampant stupidity.

[jody]

28. Corporatist strategy, out-source jobs where possible & in-source labor for the rest. That won't stop

until all native-born citizens are reduced to poverty levels and begging scraps from the tables of the corporatist unless, We the People can stop fighting over divisive, polarizing issues that let corporatist divide us.

Then we can throw all congresspersons out of office in 2010 and reclaim government as our own.