[retortio]

One thing to remember is that in many cases H1-B workers are brought over by sponsoring companies which take a huge cut (I know cases of 40% or more) out of their salaries for the service of securing them the Visa. So those salaries might appear to be a certain number but the workers themselves may actually receive significantly less while some rent seeking company stashes the differences.

I know for a fact that in my industry (not in SV) H1-B wages are lower, going off both public data and conversations I've had with H1-B coworkers, many who I consider my friends.

As a side note, I don't blame H1-B workers at all for coming here. They're generally great developers and great people.

[noobermin]

If some of your best friends are H1-B workers wouldn't the right answer be changing the regulations such that companies must pay market rate (as in for the US labor market, not internationally) for H1-B employees here?

[roskilli]

In the companies I've worked at, H1-B workers get compensated in software engineering roles just as well as their peers, I've also seen outliers where it's significantly higher (depending on when they joined, how much in demand they were with competing offers, etc).

[noobermin]

I getting seemingly contradictory comments here but one could weave a coherent story out of all of them:

1) H1B's get salaries that are comparable to US engineer salaries.

2) A middleman takes a big bite out of that, the engineer thus takes home less.

3) H1B's are essentially like most immigrants, indentured servants who have no freedom to leave their employers, thus have little leverage asking for promotions or even autonomy as an employee.

4) Companies probably are most aware of 3) but it seems like at least for FAANG the biggest factor is they don't want to invest in training people and rather want people who already are skilled and such. It's probably true if you draw your net very tightly yes anyone can find that there aren't enough qualified workers out there who won't demand I guess near half a mill salaries.

[fredfoobar]

I think it's an astro-turf campaign, it feels like it. Because no one thinking logically is gonna push an agenda that hard without actually thinking through it.

[retortio]

Not astroturfing. Technically underpaying is illegal but there are ways around paying an H1-B worker what a US citizen might receive. Title reduction, etc. Even if the total paid is the same, consulting companies that help sponsor workers get a huge cut of the salary so ultimately we have workers being paid less.

[fredfoobar]

> Technically underpaying is illegal but there are ways around paying an H1-B worker what a US citizen might receive. Title reduction, etc. Even if the total paid is the same, consulting companies that help sponsor workers get a huge cut of the salary so ultimately we have workers being paid less.

Shut them down. Enforce the law.

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/immigration/h1b

FYI for the rest: the user-ids in green means that they created their account recently.

[fredfoobar]

I'm sorry to break it to you, if your company isn't paying prevailing wages, they're doing something illegal. They need to be shut-down, not the whole fucking program.

[tracer4201]

There’s nothing illegal going on here. I posted earlier that I was at an oil and gas company in Houston, a Fortune 10 company at the time. We had IT contractors from Larsen and Toubro. As an example, one guy who reported to me was paid < $20 an hour after L&TI and another contracting company in the middle took their cut. He wasn’t thrilled with that situation but his other option was to quit and go back to India. The worst part was I couldn’t hire him directly because of his contract. He wasn’t allowed to quit and directly work for us. Kind of live slavery.

[fredfoobar]

> Employers must attest to the Department of Labor that they will pay wages to the H-1B nonimmigrant workers that are at least equal to the actual wage paid by the employer to other workers with similar experience and qualifications for the job in question, or the prevailing wage for the occupation in the area of intended employment – whichever is greater.

source: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/immigration/h1b

According to you, L&T were taking a cut out of the wages. Honestly, you should blow the whistle. L&T or whatever that middleman company is, they need to shutdown their H1-B program.

[BeetleB]

Paying H1-B less than prevailing wage is illegal/fraudulent. However, there are many legal tricks to get around it.

[fredfoobar]

if you know them, make them public, push them to be illegal. Also, I'm curious to know what those "tricks" are.

[BeetleB]

I'm not referring to a deep secret. This is well documented. Just search the Internet for H1-B "prevailing wage" loophole and you'll find some.

(Sorry, not trying to be a jerk, but it is quite nuanced and I don't remember the details).

[fredfoobar]

Convenient.

It’s both obvious and not at the same time, how does that work?

[vsskanth]

The final wage that shows up in the W2 still needs to be above the prevailing wage for that position. You cannot get an H1B approved without it.

It is simply illegal otherwise.

[ojbyrne]

The contracting company is acting illegally. I've seen a couple of similar stories in California - when they get caught, the officers go to jail.

[triceratops]

> The worst part was I couldn’t hire him directly because of his contract. He wasn’t allowed to quit and directly work for us.

How so? Presumably he signed his contract in India - how would his company enforce it?

[tracer4201]

My company has a clause that we can’t hire people from this company for 9 months. If he waits around 9 months he’ll have to leave the country wayyyy before that.

[beervirus]

Why would that be illegal?

[fredfoobar]

See my other response in this thread.

[SomeoneFromCA]

Lots of companies such as Mahindra, Wipro etc bring their people on B1, J1, L1 and employ them illegally. They receive INDIAN wages, while working in US, and the poor folks work just for bagging power back in India. For them, having worked in US increases potential wage in their home country.

[samfisher83]

300k would put you close to the 99% in California. So it is not relatively low.