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Comment by JOnAgain | Hacker News Reader

IMHO, fix this by replacing the 'random' with 'highest salary' (or total comp). Just go down from the top.

- It would alleviate (though probably not solve) the downward pressure on salaries.

- It would ensure that companies are well motivated to find domestic workers since they would, theoretically, be cheaper.

- It would ensure that H-1B's go to the people who would add the most value to the economy (or else the company would be less competitive due to overpaying).

- It would favor the most talented foreigners rather than putting them in a random lottery with new grads.

- It would allocate the H-1B's to the companies that need them most (since they're offering the most money)

- It would maximize the future tax take of the US government (maximum income => maximum taxes paid)

Ironically, this might have prevented me from getting my own H-1B as I got it fairly early in my career.

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I don't think it would impact recent graduates as much as you think. The H1-B program is mainly criticized because of these consultancies importing cheap workers to the U.S. and applying for 10,000's of visa every year. I don't know anyone that complains about immigrants that are employed by top companies such as Google, Palantir, etc... These companies pay top salaries even to new employees without experience. I am sure they would be granted most of the visas they would request if salary was a criteria.

I think this hits a snag (as do many income-based schemes) when you consider the effect of region. This results in lots of H1-Bs going to San Francisco, and almost none to Atlanta, because salaries for the same position are twice as high in San Francisco.

You could try and maybe normalize salaries based on the location I guess, but this also hits a snag when you take into account occupation. Some occupations generally pay lesser than others. Do they then not warrant H1Bs? Don't think so.

If an occupation has a lower salary, then perhaps its time for the occupation to pay more to attract local candidates. Otherwise the H-1B is being used to suppress wages.

agree on normalizing for location, but not on occupation. If certain occupations require higher skills, and are therefore able to pay higher salaries, then I see nothing wrong with them getting higher priority.

It sounds like you believe that there should be an equal geographic distribution of H1Bs. I've never heard this as a goal - can you explain why it should be?

Not equal. Just not insanely skewed. Winner-take-all by salary means that a city where people make 150% as much as another city will get say 95% of the H1-Bs.

Good point, I have given that some thought too. Besides the problems already cited in the other comments, another problem is that smaller companies trying to grow might have a competitive disadvantage because of the upward pressure on the salaries.

I fail to see the problem here under this proposal. Small companies can buy the same talent at the same price, whether it's domestically or abroad.

You seem to be arguing that small companies should have special dispensation versus large companies to circumvent immigration laws in order to lower their labor costs.

If you think small companies have a thumb on the scale, then give them a thumb on the scale. e.g. special tax incentives for hiring. And in fact small businesses do get thumbs on the scale from the government all the time. e.g. government solicitations favoring (by mandate) small and minority or female-owned businesses, SBA loans, etc. If you think they should get more, by all means argue that, but why at the expense of the US labor force?

Where do you see me arguing that smaller companies should be allowed to circumvent any immigration laws?

I simply argued that OP's proposal - which is a not a law - would put companies with scarcer funds in disadvantage against bigger companies with more money to burn. I'm all for a free market, but what the OP is proposing is a market distortion since there are a limited number of visas.

Anyhow, you do realize that H1B filling requires a certified LCA, don't you?

What about startups that want to pay with equity instead of cash?

This seems open for abuse by stating an extremely high wage in the application, and then "adjusting" it once the candidate gets his visa.

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