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Comment by light_hue_1 | Hacker News Reader

Not just low ages.

Insane work hours. Long stretches of unpaid overtime sometimes without weekends. No autonomy. No freedom. No say. Oh and shift work.

TSMC not being able to find workers has nothing in the US has nothing to do with a shortage of workers. They're just terrible to their people.

So they'll get H1B workers who are then basically trapped and can be mistreated.

The current system is terrible for everyone. Bad for the economy by keeping smart hard working people out. Bad for the workers who make it here who need to put up with TSMC. And bad for local Americans because H1B wage lower bounds aren't high enough.

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When I read a recent article, the US workers were complaining about "too much" freedom and autonomy. TSMC management would say "build this", with no blueprints or milestones.

"They keep saying we're slowing them down, but they're not giving us the information we need. Most of us are capable of doing it if you gave us the correct information."

Also safety was not important.

In Singapore they have the following system: if you want to hire a foreign worker you need to pay they more than the local worker for the same position. This ensures foreign workers don't steal jobs from locals. Another good thing is that there is no hard limit on the number of foreign workers you can hire.

They need that extra pay because private housing costs are really high.

Singapore housing costs are comparable to NYC's, SF's, Paris', London's etc... The thing is that you don't need a car (cars are super expensive though) So all in all Singapore is not expensive, average to low, compare with major first world cities

I do recall some soft limits though. Back where I was, they tried to keep a certain number of locals on staff.

For WP (work permit - unskilled jobs) there is ratio of local vs foreigners that needs to be enforced. For EP (employment pass - skilled jobs) there is no limit.

Technically the H1B system is designed to work that way, but in practice people don't believe it does because of the games you can play with titles and job descriptions.

> because of the games you can play

Plus, when the workforce is 99% H1B visa holders, what does "local worker pay" even mean?

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