As major American companies dump U.S. citizens for foreigners in cost-cutting moves, there is new evidence that the cheaper-paid immigrants are helping to keep wages in STEM jobs low.
According to an analysis of the country’s H-1B visa program, companies can cut high-tech salaries for a programer $36,000, from $93,000 to $57,000.
“In Silicon Valley the prevailing wage for a programmer is $93,891. However, an employer can legally pay an H-1B worker $57,179. An employer can save $36,000 a year by going H-1B. It is no wonder that H-1B workers are concentrated in high-wage locations of the country,” said a “Primer for Reporters” from the Center for Immigration Studies.
The report is especially timely as more West Coast companies — even Disney — dump U.S. workers for foreigners.
Despite a flood of highly-educated “Science, Technology, Engineering and Math” students pouring out of colleges, a number of companies are winning federal approval to bring in foreign workers, claiming that there aren’t enough in the U.S. to tap.
But, according to the report, the foreign workers are being classified as low level and low wage, and that is reducing the wages of many other high-tech jobs that Americans are applying for.
CIS expert John Miano said the visa system is a complicated one, made so by Congress and abused by companies. But it comes down to this:
Under this system, employers classify:
— 52 percent of H-1B workers at the lowest skill level, where they command a wage at the 17th percentile for the occupation and location.
— 30 percent at the next lowest skill level, where they command a wage at the 34th percentile.
— 12 percent at the next skill level, where they command the median (or actual prevailing wage).
— 6 percent at the highest skill level, where they command a wage at the 67th percentile.
Notice that H-1B workers are “highly skilled” when industry wants more of them, but those very same workers become low-skilled when determining what they have to be paid.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
