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Comment by lacker | Hacker News Reader

Facebook pays software engineers on an H1-B with the same salary scale that they pay all software engineers. Some companies might work that way, but the top tier like Facebook and Google do not.

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I knew and worked with multiple people at Facebook who were terrified of losing their jobs, as that would mean having to go back to an unstable home country.

I knew others who didn’t have such bad situations, but wanted to leave toward better offers and couldn’t due to H1-B and desire to get permanent residency.

Those I knew in the former category put in long hours because of their fear, those in the latter category were having their wages suppressed because of how these H1Bs are structured.

Sure, FB paid the same to H1B holders, but they’re getting a lot out of those folks because they have a harder time jumping ship.

Further, just because FB pays H1B holders the same at each band does NOT mean that H1Bs might not drag down salary for everyone by accepting lower offers. There’s a systemic component to this that ought to be explored.

> There’s a systemic component to this.

I truly think you are over-estimating the number of H1-B employees working these jobs in order to have the power to systemically drag down wages for everyone.

I didn't mean to make such a strong claim, merely to suggest there could be a more invisible component to the downward pressure. I've edited my comment to imply less certainty (though I think the amount of negatives makes it difficult to read now).

> I knew and worked with multiple people at Facebook who were terrified of losing their jobs, as that would mean having to go back to an unstable home country.

> I knew others who didn’t have such bad situations, but wanted to leave toward better offers and couldn’t due to H1-B and desire to get permanent residency.

These situations have nothing to do with FB or any employer at all though. That's just how the H1B visa/green card rules are. That's what is broken.

Base salary is similar everywhere. It’s the equity comp that is the difference, and the part that is more a function of the leverage you have as a candidate. H1-Bs are more desperate and less likely to have leverage to ask for high equity comp without a bunch of other offers.

And again the bigger part of wanting H1-Bs is that they’ll work a lot harder and turnover will be lower due to threat of having to leave the country.

I know H-1Bs at Facebook who are pulling in 500k per year in RSUs.

and? with tech stocks at record highs it’s useless to look at current value of RSU comp vs what they got when they first signed.

all i’m articulating is that there are incentives that tech companies like FB have for hiring H1-B over American workers of the same skill level. Is your point that compensation has nothing to do with it and that’s it’s exclusively for other reasons?

I think the argument was that it has nothing to do with it, companies don't sit and follow a rule that prioritizes hiring H1Bs (talking about companies like Facebook here). In fact there are quite possibly a ridiculous number of steps in hiring an employee on visa.

What is alleged in the lawsuit seems purely self preservation, if FB doesn't jump through the hoops of getting PERM certified for the employee, they are going to leave and go to another company which does that. (Saying this without making a larger comment on immigration policies of USA)

And get them to work more unpaid OT

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