<story><title>H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms</title><url>http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21716630-not-good-argument-against-them-h-1b-visas-do-mainly-go-indian-outsourcing</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>loph</author><text>This one sentence says it all:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The Economist found that between 2012 and 2015 the three biggest Indian outsourcing firms—TCS, Wipro and Infosys—submitted over 150,000 visa applications for positions that paid a median salary of $69,500. In contrast, America’s five biggest tech firms—Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft—submitted just 31,000 applications, and proposed to pay their workers a median salary of $117,000.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;None&lt;/i&gt; of those salaries listed are competitive with what a non-H1B (read citizen or permanent resident) would earn.  Indeed.com quotes the average SD salary in Seattle (think Amazon and Microsoft) as 126,000 and San Francisco at 134,000.  Companies sponsoring H1B need to be held to the letter of the law -- the salaries must be competitive.  The demand for H1B visas would fall if the imported labor was paid fairly.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>freyr</author><text>You&amp;#x27;re comparing the average salary of &lt;i&gt;all&lt;/i&gt; H-1B jobs (developer, accountant, analyst, etc.) to the salary of a developer. Instead, look at the average salaries for H-1B software engineers in 2016:&lt;p&gt;Facebook @ Menlo Park: $152k&lt;p&gt;Google @ Mountain View: $130k&lt;p&gt;Apple @ Cupertino: $154k&lt;p&gt;Amazon @ Seattle: $124k&lt;p&gt;Microsoft @ Redmond: $120&lt;p&gt;So comparing base salary alone, these companies are definitely not underpaying their H-1B hires.&lt;p&gt;To see salaries for yourself, you can go here and filter by year to see the latest data:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;h1bpay.com&amp;#x2F;companies&amp;#x2F;Facebook&amp;#x2F;cities&amp;#x2F;Menlo%20Park-CA&amp;#x2F;job-titles&amp;#x2F;Software%20Engineer&amp;#x2F;salaries&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;h1bpay.com&amp;#x2F;companies&amp;#x2F;Facebook&amp;#x2F;cities&amp;#x2F;Menlo%20Park-CA&amp;#x2F;...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms</title><url>http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21716630-not-good-argument-against-them-h-1b-visas-do-mainly-go-indian-outsourcing</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>loph</author><text>This one sentence says it all:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The Economist found that between 2012 and 2015 the three biggest Indian outsourcing firms—TCS, Wipro and Infosys—submitted over 150,000 visa applications for positions that paid a median salary of $69,500. In contrast, America’s five biggest tech firms—Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft—submitted just 31,000 applications, and proposed to pay their workers a median salary of $117,000.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;None&lt;/i&gt; of those salaries listed are competitive with what a non-H1B (read citizen or permanent resident) would earn.  Indeed.com quotes the average SD salary in Seattle (think Amazon and Microsoft) as 126,000 and San Francisco at 134,000.  Companies sponsoring H1B need to be held to the letter of the law -- the salaries must be competitive.  The demand for H1B visas would fall if the imported labor was paid fairly.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>0xfeba</author><text>Yup. I&amp;#x27;ve said it before[1][2] and people just kept replying &amp;quot;Oh but we hire them for their talent, therefore everyone does.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I work at a run of the mill SaaS company. We have 60% H-1Bs devs here as contractors from a certain contracting company (more in QA). They live paycheck to paycheck. I get paid, literally, twice as much (I&amp;#x27;ve seen the H-1B Labor Condition Applications for ones we hire directly--The contracting companies pay likely about as much but take some 20% of their salary).&lt;p&gt;We don&amp;#x27;t hire them because they are particularly talented. I&amp;#x27;ve been on interview calls with ones from the contracting companies, all their resumes are the same [3]. They are just code monkeys. Our company does it to save costs, period. Upper management knows nothing of the mythical man-month.&lt;p&gt;The system is being rampantly abused.&lt;p&gt;[1] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=13521791&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=13521791&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=13525766&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=13525766&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] - &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.vocativ.com&amp;#x2F;money&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;theyll-sponsor-american-dream-might-cost-soul&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.vocativ.com&amp;#x2F;money&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;theyll-sponsor-america...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>