Reply to post: Re: That is an interesting take on it

India challenges US visa price hike at World Trade Organisation

Dallas IT

Re: That is an interesting take on it

"This does not reflect the real cost of the local vs import. You nearly always end up with additional retention costs for locally hired staff - you have to raise their salary and run salary reviews, you have to provide bonuses, share options, etc. That in IT accounts for ~ 50K of employer costs per retainable head. At least.

So frankly, the cost of the work permit should not go down. It should go UP. To 50K or thereabouts so that only qualified staff which is worth it is imported on work permit programmes."

I think there are two easy fixes for the H-1B problem:

1) Don't use the H-1B - simply give each qualified immigrant that's request an instant green card. With that green card they can shop for an employer like any native can during their 6 year tenure. That means employers can no longer lord their status over them, pay them chump wages, or abuse them in terms of hours and time off. The desire for H-1Bs would shrivel overnight.

or

2) Pay all H-1Bs a minimum of $100,000 - if these people are as skilled as employers claim (they aren't) then this shouldn't be a problem and would prevent the import of these workers from depressing wages (although if utilizied it would still add to unemployment/underemployment of US workers). But if this were done I predict the number of H-1Bs would be nearly zero.

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