[zpk]

If we are using anecdotal evidence, I knew several paid less than their colleagues at my last job. And they were hired, because of that very reason, cheaper restricted labor. Its not hard for me to imagine in a country where labor force has been at odds with employers the last 30 years that employers would want to import in cheaper labor. India has been exporting cheap labor for the past 200 years, in fact its part of the Tata and Infosys business model here. Using the guise of an engineering shortage goes over a lot better than saying lets suppress wages by importing talent.

[raverbashing]

Well, if they go to work for Tata or other similar SW sweatshops, that's an issue they should have investigated before taking that job.

Today there's Glassdoor (and others) and not knowing if your salary is competitive or not should be a factor in accepting a job overseas.

Especially in SW engineering good labour != cheap labour.

[zpk]

So we are going to ignore the 800lb gorilla? We will ignore the fact these firms which are the largest applicants for visas are being investigated by the FBI. And conversely think that Microsoft is doing this not for cheap labor, and there is no PR spin whatsoever around the 'Engineering Shortage' topic. I couldn't buy that.

[raverbashing]

No, it's not to be ignored, if the FBI is investigating that's a start

But just don't throw away the H1-B system altogether