It's really simple, these companies are using cheap labour while making a huge profit in dollars. They can under quote other companies because of this. Taking in natives mean pay has to be high.
p.s. I am from India and have worked in U.S for couple of months for a large bank.
There's a huge shortage of people who are willing to dabble in multidisciplinary fields. Step into any automotive company and ask the engineers if they know how to code or use large amounts of data effectively. You will be surprised. I have seen H1B folks overcome tough challenges and put huge amount of effort in making amazing products.
Generalizing and bashing H1B's is not fair, neither is making regulations from SV point of view.
p.s. I work in one of the big 3's. I am on H1B and I have never accepted bare minimum salary. I am not an IT guy.
That aside, nobody so far has been bashing H1B’s, on the contrary: all the comments so far are for H1B liberalization (H1B’s should’t be tied to a particular employer) so that the loan dumping could stop and so that competition could take place based on experience and competence.
The problem is greedy managers going after “shareholder value” (their bonuses and promotions) and corrupt politicians who knew the situation and yet didn’t step in.
read this article - https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/harman-wants-quiet-ride-u...
skills required - fundamentals of acoustics, vibrations, signal processing, algorithms, coding, managing huge amounts of data, optimization, controls etc.....
this is just one technology. there are many more things that go in a car and are way more complex than active noise cancellation.
More than pay, it is the "culture fit" that these companies seem to care more for.
The business model of these companies involve getting most of the work done in India. For that to work, one needs phone calls at odd hours. An Indian employee will be more willing to accommodate these demands to attend work-related calls at odd hours.
As regulation around H-1B and similar work visas tighten, Indian outsourcers are trying to hire people of Indian origin who have green cards or are American citizens. I know from a handful of acquaintances that these employees are paid well - hence my thesis that it really isn't about the money.
I agree, there could be a cultural angle. But I don't think that is the main reason.
The savings from the salaries of few US employees does not change "the equation", as you put it, for global outsourcing companies - Infosys, TCS, Cognizant, IBM GS, Capgemini, Accenture etc - who make tens of billions per year, and employ hundreds of thousand people.
> 5%-10% are employed in US, while the rest is outsources, such models with few employees onsite just helps to outsource more.
My point, precisely. These companies would not mind paying good salaries to their employees on H-1B, or hire local employees, if they can keep the outsourcing business humming along.
> Employing a few citizens/green card holders, doesn't mean it's not about money
Well, it is about the money as in every business is about that. But these companies hire H-1Bs not to save money primarily. It is not clear to me from your comment wether you are agreeing or disagreeing with that.