<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>untog</author><text>&amp;gt; None 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.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure that comparison works fully. I don&amp;#x27;t think the ages of the average H1B applicant are made public, but a great many are college graduates - IIRC, a foreign citizen who graduates from a US university is given a one year visa, but has to find their own way after that. So H1Bs represent a lot of people at the start of their careers, wheras the average you&amp;#x27;ve found represents all developers.&lt;p&gt;One clear improvement would be to allow university graduates to stay in the US much more easily. We&amp;#x27;ve just spent an awful lot of time educating them to a US standard after all - why not keep them?</text></comment>