Visa program may aid foreign companies | By Ed Frauenheim, News.com | Published on ZDNet News: Jan 14, 2004 8:44:00 PM
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The H-1B visa program has been a hot topic in the tech industry for several years. The issue is boiling over again because of a dramatic rise in overseas outsourcing, which is costing thousands of U.S. workers their jobs, and the presidential election campaign.
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H-1B visas are supposed to be gap fillers, allowing companies to find well-educated employees when they run into trouble hiring qualified U.S. workers. Critics have charged, however, that some companies are using them on a constant basis to cut costs. Also, the visas are intended to help U.S. employers stay competitive, but Hira said his research shows their use by foreign-based companies has accelerated the shift of tech work abroad.
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Hira surmised that Infosys, Satyam and Wipro all fit the category of "H-1B dependent" employers based on their public statements. Organizations with at least 51 full-time employees in the United States were defined as H-1B dependent if 15 percent or more of their workers were holders of that visa.
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Miller found nothing inherently wrong with a high proportion of H-1Bs at the Indian companies. "There's nothing in the law, that I'm aware of, that says a company can't have 100 percent" of their employees on H-1B visas, he said. The key, he said, is that the employer cannot use the H-1B visa rules as a "cheap labor" program.
Hira, though, presents evidence that Indian IT companies seeking H-1B visas may have paid lower wages than U.S. counterparts. For example, for the year ending Sept. 30, 2001, Wipro requested a total of 3,120 H-1Bs, and pledged to pay a total of $158 million in wages, for an average annual wage of $50,648, Hira found. EDS requested a total 452 H-1Bs and pledged to pay $32 million in wages, for an average annual wage of $71,251, according to the study. ...
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