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Comment by shas3 | Hacker News Reader

"if the salary isn't really high..."

How high? Why is 100k a magic number? 100k isn't even a big deal in SF or NYC. While a high skilled scientist working in say, Corning, NY at Corning Corp or Niskayuna, NY at GE's research labs, 100k enables a king's life. How would you adjust for experience? Perhaps a company sees immense potential and cultural fit in an employee and wants to groom them for future roles? The wages of a 30-year industry veteran would kick the promising young star out of the H1B pool, etc. etc.

Setting a wage threshold without considering other factors is unfairly simplistic.

Besides, companies pay wages based on industry and market averages. You can't suddenly expect them to peg wages to outbid competitors on H1B. Why would Procter and Gamble or Dow or Caterpillar pay university, Facebook, McKinsey, or hedge fund wages? Why should they?

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You shouldn't adjust for cost of living; remember, the causality flows the other way. SV and the coasts have a higher cost of living because they've found a more value-generating use of the labor that allows workers to bid up prices. [1] If the system favors them, that seems like it's working properly.

Caterpillar shouldn't pay hedge fund wages; they should pay high-for-the-area wages to draw Americans out there rather than use up competitive slots reserved for the most economically valued immigrants.

[1] Of course, there are land use restrictions etc.

> How high? Why is 100k a magic number? 100k isn't even a big deal in SF or NYC. While a high skilled scientist working in say, Corning, NY at Corning Corp or Niskayuna, NY at GE's research labs, 100k enables a king's life.

Highly skilled workers do not receive cost of living adjustments. I've been recruited for jobs in low cost of living and high cost of living areas. The pay is the same in both when there is a true shortage of labor.

This is why the auction system is great. If Company A wants to pay Engineer X $500k and Company B wants to pay Engineer Y $50k then clearly Company A has a greater need.

> Highly skilled workers do not receive cost of living adjustments. I've been recruited for jobs in low cost of living and high cost of living areas. The pay is the same in both when there is a true shortage of labor.

Policy cannot be determined by anecdotes.

> Company A wants to pay Engineer X $500k and Company B wants to pay Engineer Y $50k then clearly Company A has a greater need.

Hardly a forgone conclusion, there are numerous confounding factors. For example company B might not have the resources/revenue to outbid company A.

Another counterexample of many for why an auction system is terrible: employee y could be a research scientist in industry contributing to the foundation of a new industry. An auction system would give their visa to a fullstack developer hired by a startup flush with funding.

> For example company B might not have the resources/revenue to outbid company A.

If Company B doesn't have the resources to outbid Company A then we've decided, as a society, that whatever Company A is doing is more important that what Company B is doing.

> Another counterexample of many for why an auction system is terrible: employee y could be a research scientist in industry contributing to the foundation of a new industry. An auction system would give their visa to a fullstack developer hired by a startup flush with funding.

That sounds like a problem with the way that we fund science and not a problem with immigration.

Also, anecdotally, there is no shortage of scientists. I know plenty of people who had to go into tech or finance because they couldn't find science jobs.

> If Company B doesn't have the resources to outbid Company A then we've decided, as a society, that whatever Company A is doing is more important that what Company B is doing.

The question being - has that been decided in a fair manner?

Capitalism is not about fair, it's about diminishing returns.

VC's don't have access to a significant chunk of US GDP. Sure, some things are over allocated, but Wall Street is limited to the amount of money invested by other people.

Would it be fair for the candidate to not get the highest wage possible? I don't see how this problem is any different than trying to get non-immigrant labor. Company A is offering a significantly higher salary to a citizen than Company B, they'll probably get the candidate.

then we've decided, as a society, that whatever Company A is doing is more important that what Company B is doing.

Congratulations, you've invented oligarchy!

Many tech startups are able to bid up wages not because they're "creating value", but because they have access to the pockets of a small number of venture capitalists. Which means that if you make VC-backed high salaries a necessary part of doing business, you've handed those VCs the literal authority to regulate commerce and decide who does and doesn't get to be in the market.

And last I checked, "have a small group decide which businesses are allowed to exist" is not considered a free market.

>Many tech startups are able to bid up wages not because they're "creating value", but because they have access to the pockets of a small number of venture capitalists. Which means that if you make VC-backed high salaries a necessary part of doing business, you've handed those VCs the literal authority to regulate commerce and decide who does and doesn't get to be in the market.

Very true. That's why we need to tax the VCs very highly and break up monopolistic firms.

All of which has nothing to do with the immigration system for skilled workers on temporary visas.

Outside of a small handful of areas (SV, Seattle, NY, a few others), it's very difficult to find anything in the $300K+ "total package" range. In SV all you have to do is get yourself hired by one of the top firms and then stay in the saddle while your stock vests and not suck too bad. Voila, 400K a year (much of which you will pay in taxes, but nonetheless). I challenge anyone to find a non-manager software engineering job that pays mid six figures in the Midwest.

There are lots of companies in the Midwest that will pay mid six figures for a non-manager SWE. I will concede that there are fewer such jobs in the Midwest.

I'm not convinced that jobs in the Midwest generally pay less than in California because of cost of living. It may well be that SWE openings in the Midwest are generally for less-skilled SWEs precisely because it's not worth paying California salaries for those roles.

This rings true to me because, well, there are companies in the Midwest that will pay mid six figures.

Which companies pay ~500k for a non-manager SWE in the Midwest?

This is total liquid comp, not base salary. I hope I didn't mislead you.

If you're still interested, I suggest that you speak to a headhunter. It's their job to place people and I'm not interested in breaking anonymity.

The only example that I know of in support of vostok's statement are a couple of HFT trading firms in Chicago. If you have the right chops, your comp _starts_ at 500K there, and then quickly goes up to about $1M/yr. But you do need elite chops, and you do have to live in Chicago, and you do have to work in an HFT firm, which is, shall we say, not for everybody.

I am not aware of trading firms that start at $500k, but this is, broadly speaking, correct. The pay is similar to the high paying tech companies, but the mean is higher as the left tail is chopped off due to somewhat higher requirements for hiring.

Obviously a mom and pop flower shop will not hire a fulltime developer and pay them $500k. They just don't need to pay that much to meet their requirements.

Could be. I just couldn't find any such jobs, even after 8 years at Google, which tends to improve one's chances of finding a top paying job.

> Perhaps a company sees immense potential and cultural fit in an employee and wants to groom them for future roles?

As previously stated, the intention of H1B is for ALREADY SKILLED workers in short supply. If they want to groom someone, they should be hiring a US citizen, not going to the H1B pool to find a low-cost foreign alternative.

Eh? Nothing precludes grooming skilled workers! Also, obviously, new hires can be highly skilled. Someone already skilled may fit better in one company than another, etc. etc.

So what exactly is the mythical groomed position that you envision that both can't be filled by an American worker and requires an extremely skilled H1B visa worker?

H1Bs are intended to address skilled worker shortages. They exist so companies can fill important roles now. If someone is being groomed than they lack the skills required for the position they're being groomed for. Companies should either hire an H1B with the skills already, find someone local they can train or use a different visa to hire someone they can train.

have you already seen a few job offers in tech? The range of skills needed is very often pretty daunting and having a set of skills and hence being a skilled worker does not mean you will be abble to do 100% of the job without having the grooming part. whats the point for someone to go to a job where he will learn nothing? please...

For 65,000 people and bidding based on salary, 300k sounds about right IMO. Think brain surgeons and the worlds best security experts not just DBA's.

Security experts are not paid like surgeons or developers. I wonder what you mean with "just" DBAs.

I know some security people in the 450+k/year range, and I hear 8 figures is possible.

As to just DBA, like programmers there is a long tail salary range but, the majority make under 150k.

PS: At various times you hear things like the Teaching shortage, or the Nursing shortage. But, that just supply and demand working as intended when a job does not pay very well few people are going to do it. However, when a job does pay well and you can't find people that's a separate problem.

This is goes back to a more philosophical question. Is it fair that some get payed more than others even though they are equally skilled or maybe even contribute more to society? How do you even define being skilled?

Politicians only want to allow high skilled immigration, since low skilled immigration takes away jobs or at least constituents seem to think so.

For the purpose of a green card application you actually have to show that you tried to recruit a US person for the position, but that system is slow and easily gamed as well: You just make requirements up that only one person in the world can fulfill, the person you are trying to hire.

If you define it based on salary you exclude people who are skilled but in locations, industries or professions that don't pay well, say barbers or teachers as an extreme example. Is that fair? I don't know.

Also, the system kind of takes a simplistic view that there are X number of jobs and Y number of people who are qualified to do that job. It doesn't consider that some people are better at the job than other and that job requirements can be fluid.

> If you define it based on salary you exclude people who are skilled but in locations, industries or professions that don't pay well, say barbers or teachers as an extreme example. Is that fair? I don't know.

Shouldn't this be first class evidence that there is no shortage of barbers or teachers? If there were a shortage then you would pay them more.

The same could be said for anyone who is payed less than 100k, right?

Yes. There is no shortage of anyone who is paid under $100k.

Why shouldn't they? Salary is proportional to economic value. Shouldn't we be trying to maximize the economic value generated through the H1-B program?

Not necessarily. We should also be trying to make sure that it isn't used as a cheap replacement for citizen labor.

>How high? Why is 100k a magic number? 100k isn't even a big deal in SF or NYC.

Good point. How about high-skilled scientists get paid double that! Besides, the government has to run itself, including the immigration authorities, by taxing these salaries. Best they be high.

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