Experts offer proof H-1Bs used to hire cheaper labor

Human resources professional, software industry analyst cite first-hand experience and government statistics to prove H-1B visas are often used unfairly as a ploy to keep wages low

Two observations were sent to me following my blog entry, Professor Refutes Claims of IT Job Growth.

Both are worth repeating here.

The first is from a human resources professional, named JMS. JMS has seen first hand how H-1B visas are used to cheat workers, both domestic and foreign, out of a fair wage.

The second is the latest study on IT wages from John Miano. Following the JMS comment are Miano’s major points an a link to the full study entitled “Low Salaries for Low Skills Wages and Skill Levels for H-1B Computer Workers, 2005”.

From JMS:

“As a Human Resources representative, I see first hand how the H-1B visa and employment based green card programs actually work together to drive U.S. white collar workers from their jobs and even from their careers.

To begin with, the H-1B rules clearly state that an H-1B worker can be hired even when a qualified American wants the job, and any American worker can be terminated in favor of an H-1Ber. H-1B is also a dual intent visa, so an employer may sponsor an H-1Ber for an EB green card for legal permanent resident status.

Companies routinely game the labor certification process for green card sponsorship to defraud even well qualified citizen job applicants in favor of low wage foreigners. They use fake job ads and/or bad faith interviews of American citizens to convince the federal government that they tried to find American workers first.

These practices are common in high tech and even in some non-tech industries, but HR people are told to keep quiet about it or lose their jobs.

I would be in favor of a program that issues a small number of

self-sponsoring green cards for truly innovative foreign nationals on a competitive basis. But very few of the H-1Bers or green card applicants that I have seen in 10+ years even come close to being truly innovative.

Most are just practitioners with skills that actually quite common among the domestic workforce. The only thing special about these foreigners is that they will work for substantially less than Americans in order to have a chance to become legal permanent residents. Thus they are used by management to sweeten corporate balance sheets.

Since my work allows me to have access to salary records, I can tell you that the labor cost savings for H-1Bers and green card applicants is substantially greater than the costs of filing the applications with the government.

Citizens should demand that both the H-1B and EB green card programs be abolished in their current form.”

Posted by: JMS at April 26, 2007 09:07 PM

Here are the highlights from John Miano’s latest salary study.

– According to the applications filed in 2005, it appears that employers may be significantly understating what U.S. computer workers are earning in order to justify paying low wages to H-1B guestworkers in those occupations. In FY 2005, H-1B employer prevailing wage claims averaged $16,000 below the median wage for U.S. computer workers in the same location and occupation.

– 90 percent of H-1B employer prevailing wage claims for programming occupations were below the median U.S. wage for the same occupation and location, with 62 percent of the wage claims in the bottom 25th percentile of U.S. wages.

– While higher than the prevailing wage claims, the actual wages reported for H-1B workers were significantly less than those of their American counterparts. Wages for H-1B workers averaged $12,000 below the median wage for U.S. work-ers in the same occupation and location.

– The reported wages for 84 percent of H-1B workers were below the median U.S. wage; 51 percent were in the bottom 25th percentile of U.S. wages.

– Many employers make prevailing wage claims using wage sources that are not valid under the law. The Department of Labor routinely approves prevailing wage claims based on these invalid sources.

So, as I said in a previous post, Let’s Call Gates’ Bluff on H-1B visas.

But I’m taking my call for action a step further: I suggest you send this blog to your Congressional representative and ask for an official investigation to get at the truth once and for all.