Tech Worker Shortage, H-1B System Challenged

[OhioChick]

2010-01-07

An ALF-CIO report pokes holes in U.S. guest worker programs and sheds light on the core issue of wage reduction for technical professionals in the United States and expanded entry of guest workers into newer fields such as health care and education. The report touches on the oft-cited abuse and mistreatment of guest workers from foreign countries, as well as closely examining near-stagnant wages for U.S. workers and H-1B visa holders.

Based on the research of the National Research Council, the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Education, the Computing Research Association, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the RAND Corporation and a host of other university research sources, the AFL-CIO labor organization published a report in December refuting the claim that there is a shortage of engineering, technology and scientific talent in the United States. This report comes from the Department of Professional Employees, which is an amalgamation of four AFL-CIO unions, including those representing IT workers, engineers, scientists, professors and other educators.

The report, entitled "Gaming the System: Guest Worker Visa Programs and Professional and Technical Workers in the U.S.," pokes holes in guest worker programs and sheds light on the core issue of wage reduction for technical professionals in the United States and expansion of guest workers into newer fields such as health care and education. The report touches on the oft-cited abuse and mistreatment of guest workers from foreign countries, as well as closely examining near-stagnant wages for U.S. workers and H-1B visa holders.

The report looks at real-world examples of wage abuse based on 2008 wages of several technical H-1B visa holders, including one whom Mabemah, based in Ocoee, Fla., paid $11.20 per hour for a Web developer job—well below the prevailing wage for that occupation. It also cites the example of a director of Medical Information Technology who made $11.90 an hour at The Pediatric Associates in Montrose, Colo. Tactics for wage repression of H-1B visa holders cited in the report include:

"Employers often set lower salaries by: selecting a survey source with the lowest salaries, misclassifying experienced employees as entry-level, giving an H-1B visa holder a lower job title than work requires, or citing wages for a low-cost area of the country while the H-1B holder is unlawfully transferred to a higher-cost area."

More: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/Tech-Worker-Shortage-H1B-System-Challenged-Report-Says-812595/

[DainBramaged]

1. I see 'entry-level' IT jobs all the time with MINIMUM A+ and full certifications

starting at $11-$15. What a scam. Here's one from Monster.....


TEKsystems
Location: Parsippany, NJ
Salary: 12.00 - 15.00 USD /hour
Position Type: Full Time, Temporary/Contract/Project
Job Category: Customer Support/Client Care
Teksystems is looking for a entry level PC technician to aid in laptop and desktop deployments in various different client sites in Northern New Jersey.

On a day-to-day basis this person will be called on to work 1 or 2 weeks a month doing computer deployments, ghosting, and imaging. The perfect candidate will be required to resolve a wide array of issues from simple connections to resolving scripting errors to advanced server administration.

To be qualified for this position you much have 1 to 2 years of hands on or remote IT experience. It is prudent that you have a flexible schedule and are able to work between the hours of 7AM and 2AM. Experience with ghosting, imaging, and MS Office Suite are required. A+, Networking+ and CCNA certifications will be a plus. This is an ideal position that works 3rd shift or is just out of a technical school and is looking for experience.

Required Skills:
MS OFFICE 2003, MCP/WINDOWS, A+, Networking +, CCNA, MCDST, GHOST IMAGING


Don't tell me they aren't fishing for H!B visa holders.....

[scubadude]

3. I've been looking for a while

and I've seen quite a few adds just as you've described. Entry level or low pay jobs with prerequisite skills that cannot be had without quite a bit of expensive schooling and lots of very specific training and experience. They
have shaken the skilled highly paid folks out of the system and are now looking for cheap young replacements...


Scuba

[ChromeFoundry]

5. Yeah right...

MCP, A+, Networking+, CCNA and MCDST required, and 1-2 years exp...

Hell, they may as well ask for a doctorate and a CCIE too!

TEKsystems is a shit company anyways... I've yet to see any talent come out of that company. None of them EVER pass the first tech screenings.

[benld74]

2. NOBODY has those credentials AND works for THAT money EXCEPT a H-1B visa holder

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Where do they live?

Or, how do they live with those wages?

[wroberts189]

6. ...The ads are only put in to justify the H1B visas.

They have to show that they looked for a US worker before they get their visa permits... so they deliberately create bogus ads using fudged wage data. Then they say "See.. we tried and could not find anyone."

My sister ..who is a highly qualified paralegal is now seeing the same thing. Showing up at a job interview with hundreds of others only to see the same ad being run weeks later...

A good programmer or Unix admin could at one time command a 60-100k+ salary. But during the big dot com bubble the CEO's said "Why are we paying the geeks so much? So what if they deal with complex challenging stressful situations on a daily basis? Lets just import cheap IT labor from India where most get free Scholarships."

That was their attitude.

I know because I was a Unix admin working for a company that got bought out. My supervisor told me.. the new management "had serious questions about my salary".

This company had the dumbest of ideas..lets merge a thousand isp's into one and call it "OneMain your hometown Internet"

So they fly us all down (admins from across the country from a bunch of isp's they bought) to some waste dump hotel in some state that was so dead and boring I cannot remember it's name.

We all tried so hard to tell them... Merging hundreds of different billing and administrative systems into one was going to take some serious time and work just for beginners.. you would also need tremendous co-ordination ..on and on we went. A room full of possibly some of the most brightest IT people I have ever seen collected in one room and we all told them..do not do this.

As a side note most of us were also very concerned about changing our local brand name.

"Integration is coming and will happen ..deal with it." The head lackey said.

Funded by venture investors.. they did not last very long ..8 months ..and were bought out by Earthlink who promptly laid off or forced who (after two mergers) remained out the door. I was forced out after I reported them to the Labor Dept for clear ERISA violations dealing with our 401ks .. despite promises of confidentiality the people at the DOL call the company ..tell them my name and simply asked them if they were doing anything wrong. Long story but I got screwed over for reporting they had removed all our retirement funds from our accounts and we had been waiting for 3 months to find out where they were all moved to. After another month we all got statements from the new investment company. We all lost 10-20 percent.

[DainBramaged]

8. Pooling their wages living together wherever thay can

[LiberalEsto]

13. Tata, a huge Indian corporation

used to set up huge dormitories in the DC suburbs where their H1B workers could live dirt cheap and save up their paychecks. I don't know whether they still do this, but my husband worked with a lot of H1Bs and found out about this.

[LiberalEsto]

12. How do they pay off their student loans?

College educations aren't free in the U.S.

Americans who graduate with degrees in computer science and a boatload of loans must compete for jobs against foreign nationals who quite often received FREE college educations and therefore can live on a lower wage. It's no wonder to me that very few people in the U.S. are bothering to major in computer science any more.

[Cobalt-60]

7. They've beggared a generation of IT workers

I know, I'm one of them.
There is no shortage of educated Americans.
Disloyal corporations prefer foreign slave labor.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. The law needs to be changed so that an H-1B visa can be granted ONLY

if the employer has failed to find an American worker at any price.

[MH1]

10. Simple solution to the H1B issue

Heavily tax companies for each H1B they hire. Use the revenue SOLELY to train US workers in the skills that H1Bs are being hired for. Require the companies that hire H1Bs to start hiring from this newly trained talent pool (or they can no longer continue to qualify for H1B workers). Set the H1B hiring tax at the level that is needed to run the program.

[onpatrol98]

11. Excellent Solutions

Excellent suggestions...I went to a conference once, and the discussion was about how wonderful this new pool of talent was, and how great it would be for Americans. Keep in mind, this conference was at a local small university. So, I asked the question, "Isn't this outside pool of talent, cutting off entry level and other positions typically occupied by new graduates, etc."

She smugly told me, new graduates shouldn't be applying for these jobs anyway. They should be looking for higher level jobs, management, etc.

I said, "Without any entry level experience?"

She gave me a dirty look, and moved on to another questioner.

[bergie321]

14. K&R

[swaroop]

15. endh1b2.com is back

http://endh1b2.com/Web/blogs/endh1b/archive/2010/01/13/new-jersey-amp-free-speech.aspx

New Jersey & Free Speech

censorshipA New Jersey state judge, James Hurley, has made international news with his recent decision to shut down three websites dedicated to the debate on the H1-B visa situation in America. H1-B is a visa that allows companies in America to import workers from other countries to fill positions that cannot be filled by American workers. These jobs usually require a specialized skill, but the categories have become so all encompassing that to list them here would be impractical.