Importing lower wages as 75% of Silicon Valley’s tech workers are foreign-born: How tech manipulates the H-1B visa program for cheap labor.

We tend to believe that the tech industry operates in a very progressive atmosphere as far as how they vote. This might be the case for workers but for owners, they are ultra-bottom line and this is seen in the way theyhire lower wage workers. We tend to get things mixed up in regards to foreign workers ‘stealing jobs’ when the rhetoric is thrown out in the media. In reality, most of the H-1B visas, a visa to allow employers to recruit and employ foreign professionals in specialty occupations, is largely dominated by the tech industry. In fact there are industries in China and India that cater to this market entirely like Tata Consultancy Services. Yet thispushes wages lower at a high level since these are skilled workers. For other Americans, the low wage employment train continues to chug along. Which companies sponsor the highest numbers of H-1B workers?
The H-1B black box
There is a massive demand for H-1B visas around the United States but in particular in Silicon Valley. Among the total working population, 45 percent of workers are foreign born, but in tech, the numbers are skewed with 75 percent being foreign born and many are here on H-1B visas earning a much lower wage than their American counterparts.

This post was published at MyBudget360 on Feb 12, 2016.