H-1b program is dissuading next generation of Americans from entering the tech profession ...paying H1-Bs 25% below what they would have to pay Ameri

Programmers Guild rebuts Bill Gates call for more H-1b visasMarch 12, 2008

1) One way to “allow more highly-skilled workers to remain in the U.S.” is to grant H-1b visas on the basis of skill rather than by a lottery. But just as last year the Programmers Guild expects USCIS to conduct a lottery, granting H-1b to $16/hour hotel clerks while denying visas to PhD genetic researchers. The best proxy for “skill” is “wage.” This simple reform in H-1b would allow Microsoft to have as many “highly skilled H-1b” as then need under the current cap – AS LONG AS THEY PAID THEM WHAT THEY ARE WORTH.

2) Our competitive advantage is eroding, and Bill Gates has used the H-1b program to facilitate that erosion. Microsoft used the H-1B visa to train a critical mass of foreign workers within the U.S., then used these workers to establish overseas operations, with U.S. technology in their back pockets. East Side Journal explained on October 10, 2002:

``The replication of Microsoft's culture [ at [Hyderabad's] Hi-Tec City ] has been possible because many people who worked in Redmond for many years have moved back to be part of the India Development Center,'' Koppolu wrote.

Between October 1999 and February 2000, [Microsoft] obtained 362 H-1B visas from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, making it the U.S.'s sixth-largest importer of Indian employees for that period.
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3) We agree with Gates that U.S. “workforce development” needs to be improved. Gates claims that Microsoft needs more H-1b to hire new foreign graduates. But there are many U.S. graduates with several years of experience trying to find work at Microsoft and other employers – but Gates does not open these “entry level” positions to these Americans. Why? Experienced Americans are only considered for the positions that require an arbitrary 3 to 7 years of experience in several specific skills – then the Americans are summarily rejected for not meeting all of those arbitrary qualifications.

Nearly all Microsoft jobs require 3-5 years experience in several technologies. In effect the “richest man in the world” is too cheap to hire and train his American workforce. ...
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Eight of the top 10 users of H-1b are foreign consulting firms. These Indian firms bring in thousands H-1b workers each, admit to paying them 25% below what they would have to pay Americans, thus displacing U.S. consulting firms and U.S. consultants. This is not helping “Americas global competitiveness.” H-1b needs to be reformed so that employers must pay at least a median wage to H-1b workers.

The H-1b program is dissuading the next generation of Americans from entering the tech profession. H-1b forces new graduates, with $50k student loans and no experience, to directly compete for American jobs against citizens from every country in the world. There is currently no requirement that employers give preference to American applicants. The Programmers Guild thinks that there should be. ....