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Comment by Overtonwindow | Hacker News Reader

I think some might read that title and jump to conclusion. Don't. The article states that they are only foreign born, but it doesn't say anything about how they got here. It would have helped had the article made this clear, but it's likely IEEE doesn't want to step into the H1B visa abuse issue.

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Whenever someone brings up H1B, everybody goes to abuse issue, but a lot of us got here as students and we still have to use H1B to work. It is unfair to just lump everybody on an H1B as a low wage, unqualified person.

What percentage of H1Bs are "low wages"?

Over 60% easily

They are not low wages but are getting below market salaries. If that was what you're hinting at.

I'm guessing most people working for IT consultancies and services companies are paid way below market wages. Sure, the company hiring them is billing more than that, but the employee still gets significantly lower than market wages.

The issue that many of us have, myself included, with the H1B program is that is is primarily used to suppress local wages. It is easy to say you can't find candidates if you are pricing the job well below market wages.

I'm not saying H1B is not abused, I'm saying not everybody on H1B is abusing the system or is getting paid below market wages.

I am not saying everyone on H1B is as well. Yet the overwhelming majority of uses I see of H1B is to get a lower wage full stop. I do work extensively with offhsore resources and have worked with H1B's for over 20 years.

I don't begrudge them recipients for taking the jobs. My issue is the corporations who are abusing a system to make themselves more money while simultaneously destroying local talent. It is a death spiral of greed, yet they seem to be oblivious to it.

I can't say I understand this argument. Say an American company X outsources to a foreign company Y. Y abuses the system and hires a bunch of H1B and pays them pennies to the dollar. X is still paying Y dollars and not pennies right? Sure, the H1B is working for lower salary, but X's cost is still not a lot lower than hiring locally right? I see how just shipping the jobs to India/China might have the effect you are describing, but I don't think hiring H1B holders is the same thing.

Are you using product made in other countries to suppress local prices?

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