The minimum wage for H1B visa recipients is $60,000, unchanged from 1989. Let me emphasize that for you. Our government is permitting companies to bring in foreign skilled labor at 1989 wages, completely undercutting the American workforce and driving down wages.
Today President Trump signed an executive order to reform the program.
"Right now, H-1B visas are awarded in a totally random lottery -- and that's wrong, said Trump."
Annually, there is a quota of 85,000 new visas, with 20,000 reserved for master's degree holders. To give you an idea how voracious an appetite American tech firms have for foreign labor, this was the fifth year in a row the cap had been met within 5 days.
The order was seen as a ceremonial media event, having little to no bearing on actual law. In order to effect real change, congress will need to change the law.
Tucker Carlson took on Mark Cuban to discuss the law -- who is supportive of the H1b visas because MUH American exceptionalism and MUH capitalism. While against 'hoarding' visa, Cuban is supportive of the program because it allows American companies to hire skilled labor.
Tucker retorted, 'that's the talking point, and it makes sense [...], but the reality, as you know, is 80% of foreigners admitted under H1b make less than the median income in which the work. In other words, they're being brought over, not because of their skills, but because they save labor costs. That's a subversion of the idea.'
Cuban's reply was to blame the visa hoarders on causing the problem, saying 'that's wrong, that's not at the core of the H1b visa.'
Then Cuban twisted himself into a pretzel, saying 'But when it comes to competing for the best talent around the world, I'm a big believer in American exceptionalism. I believe we can compete. When we can't get the job, we get smarter. Work harder, get smarter, you'll get it the next time around. I think that's good for everybody.'
WTF? What sort of bullshit was Mark chewing on before spewing out this nonsense? But what about the wage gap, Mark?
Tucker weighed in, 'except in a lot of those cases, we don't get smarter, we get unemployed.' Tucker went on to explain that over 40% of college graduates describe themselves as underemployed. He added, 'so we have a massive labor pool that's educated in our system (Cuban nodding), and yet they're being turned away in favor of people who are being educated abroad. That does not help America in any way.'
(awkward silence, death blow delivered)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlKsLpM7fxk
The government has an obligation to protect American jobs. By plainly stating that the religion of capitalism can do no wrong and that 'market forces' will lead the path towards utopia is rhetoric. By creating loopholes that lower wages and literally take jobs away from skilled American labor is the very definition of abdication of duty, in some cases treasonous.
The biggest H1B visa sponsors are:
Infosys
Cap Gemini
Tata Consulting
IBM
Wipro
Accenture
Tech Mahindra
Deloitte
Cognizant
Microsoft
HCL America
Google
Ernst and Young
UST Global
Larsen and Toubro
Amazon
It's worth noting, many of those companies are consultants, who then used the skilled labor to work on projects on behalf of their fortune 500 clients. In others words, they're merely gatekeepers, obfuscating the true nature of how pervasive this program is in the American workforce.