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H-1Beating a dead horse

Following on from yesterday’s post, Ephraim kindly forwarded me a quote from John Miano of the “Programmers’ Guild”. I haven’t yet got permission to post it here, but in summary, it confirms that years of experience was not taken into consideration when compiling their report.

Miano further states that according to the law, experience is not supposed to be taken into account when defining the prevailing wage.

Boy, did I feel silly.

Until I spent thirty seconds on Google and found the following on a Department of Labor webpage:

All employer applications for a prevailing wage determination shall initially be considered an entry level or Level I wage. The employer’s requirements for experience, education, training, and special skills shall be compared to those generally required for an occupation… and shall be used as indicators that the job opportunity is for an experienced (Level II), qualified (Level III), or fully competent (Level IV) worker and warrants a prevailing wage determination at a higher wage level.

Hey, it only directly contradicts the methodology used by the Programmers’ “Guild”.

Why I am so hot under the collar about this?

Because I’ve got a lot out of the H1-B scheme (it indirectly lead to me meeting Joy, after all), and think it’s one of the best ways for America to top up its melting pot.

Especially when the alternative is, you know, chance.

Being a non-resident is a pretty tough deal. When an employer is faced with two candidates for a position, one of whom is a US resident, and the other needing visa sponsorship, they’re only going to fork out thousands of dollars in filing and lawyers’ fees and wait the necessary time if the H1B candidate is thought to be significantly more beneficial to the company.

Yes, I’m certain abuse does exist. If someone wanted, I’m certain they could provide evidence of dubious “body shop” consultancies bringing in “cheap” foreign labour and treating them poorly. (Any parallels drawn here between software consulting and prostitution would be tasteless. Luckily I’m above such things.) But such companies knowingly break the law, and I’m would no more change their practices in response to visa caps than a crack dealer would when he sees McGruff the Crime Dog. (Hrmmm… Is comparing software consultants to crack dealers any better?)

The Programmers’ “Guild” is engaged in racism, pure and simple, and as such, should not be tolerated by an educated society. My hope is that Infoworld will consider posting a correction or clarification, or better yet, a follow-up column questioning their motives.

H-1Belittling

Ooh, I’m grumpy at this InfoWorld article which makes your standard “Bloody foreigners! Coming across here and stealing our jobs, sleeping with our food, and eating our wives and children” argument about computer programmers. For those unware, H1B is a specific visa that allows a non-US citizen to work in the US for a specific employer, for no more than six years. And it’s how I entered the country in 1998.

Unfortunately, he fails to link to the original report, instead cherry picking facts like “On average, applications for H-1B workers in computer occupations were for wages $13,000 less than Americans in the same occupation and state.”

Note that he just refers to “workers in computer occupations”. Not “workers in computer occupations with three years experience”. Apparently, every programmer is created equal. I’d hazard that most H1-B holders are like I was—Just out of university, and wanting to move to the States. If that’s the case, then it makes sense that the “average” H1-B holder gets paid less than the “average” permanent resident. They’re probably less experienced.

Also, the sources quoted seem very apples and oranges. The H1B salaries were taken from the information filed at the time the H1B holder was hired. In my first job, my salary went up by 50% over the two years I was employed there, but that was never reported to the immigration services. On the other hand, the Bureau of Labour statistics are refreshed every few months by asking employers for salary information.

I’d love to see the original report to know for sure, but for now it looks like nothing more than fodder for anti-immigration fuckwits.

UPDATE: Although the report isn’t on their site, I’ve just found the authors, The Programmers Guild. Wow, they’re a lot closer to the Minuteman Militia than I’d imagined.

UPDATE²: Ephraim Schwartz, author of the article, has responded in my comments. Thanks, Ephraim.