Salaries For H1-B Visa Workers Grew 5X Faster Than Salaries Of Equivalent American Workers

by NEE
h1-b visa workers wages have risen five times faster than those of american workers
Median Salaries for H1-B Visa Workers Grew Five-Times Faster than the Salaries of Equivalent Domestic Workers, Over Last Decade
New data from Pew Research shows that temporary foreign workers (H1-B visa holders) have received significant raises over the last decade, while American workers have suffered from relative wage stagnation.
Over the last decade the median salary for H1-B visa workers rose from $69,455 to approximately $80,000 per year—a pay rise of almost 16%.
By contrast, the wages of domestic workers in similar jobs rose from $73,036 in 2007, to $75,306 today—a 3% increase.
That means the salaries of foreign workers have increased faster than domestic workers by a ratio of 5:1. And, when accounting for inflation, the domestic workers have actually taken a heavy pay cut over the last decade.
Neil Ruiz of Pew Research explains:
The 2016 median salary reported for H-1B visa applicants was higher than the median salary paid to some U.S. workers in similar high-skill occupations. For example, U.S. workers in computer and mathematical occupations had a median salary of $75,036 in fiscal 2016, a slight decrease from 2007, when the median salary was $73,979 (adjusted to 2016 dollars), according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on all U.S. workers. The majority (60%) of all H-1B applicants from fiscal 2007 to 2016 were seeking employment in computer and mathematical occupations.
This is plotted below:

The H1-B visa program is the main way US employers hire high-skilled foreigners.  Using the program, employers can hire specialized workers (computer specialists, mathematicians, engineers, etc.) for up to six years.  This period may be extended if the worker has applied for a green card.
For the US to issue H1-B visas they require employers to prove that no American worker would be displaced, however, this protection is spurious and often circumvented using indirect methods.
The H1-B visa program rapidly grew under the last administration.  From Fiscal Year 2015 to 2016 alone, H1-B visa petitions increased from 348,699 to 398,718.  In addition, the number of petitions approved increased from 275,317 to 345,262 during the same time period.
With increased labor supply for high-skilled workers, it’s unsurprising that domestic workers’ salaries are going down, even at the upper end of the pay spectrum.  As Spencer P Morrison explains:
There have been a number of comprehensive studies looking at the impact between immigration an economic growth.  In America, one of the most thorough was a 642 page study conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.  The study found that immigration negatively impacted the wages and employment prospects of American citizens, particularly working class Americans.  This is not surprising, since more workers means more competition for employment, and therefore lower prices (wages).  It is basic supply and demand in action.
For a comprehensive look at this topic, check out our article on how mass immigration is bad for the economy.

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10 thoughts on “Salaries For H1-B Visa Workers Grew 5X Faster Than Salaries Of Equivalent American Workers”

  1. This is very likely related to the fact that salaries in India have grown a lot.
    A (very good) software engineer from India (who lives in India) makes around $7500 a month these days. The times of “we’ll pay you $3000 a month if you come here! That’s 3 times more than you make at home! Live like a king!” are over at least as far as India is concerned (and at least in the software development world, India is the most important H1-B country – their engineers tend to know what they’re doing, can’t say that much about their colleagues from other “cheap” countries).

    Reply
      • There’s an extra problem here. Our education system has degraded to the point that people don’t learn how to do the job anymore. If I need an engineer who knows something about writing device drivers, I can’t just hire a random college graduate who majored in Gender Studies and minored in Art History.
        The demand for people with skills in this area is bigger than what our education system can deliver (even if you include people who taught themselves (and who are usually better than any ivy league graduates) in the numbers).
        Filling those available jobs (which in turn create new jobs, an art history major may well be able to work in marketing for the products created by those engineers) creates more jobs here.
        Unless and until our education system is fixed to give people skills they need to get things done, some amount of H-1B visa is necessary. (But I agree that there’s room for cutting down the number of H-1Bs quite a bit).

        Reply
        • NO you are very WRONG about jobs in the USA and great companies.You have to BUILD your company and GROW YOUR honest hard working,dedicated ,committed,LOYAL US CITIZEN employees there are NO INSTANT companies or good foreign code writers see OBAMACARE.com!

          Reply
          • I agree about the proper way to build a company — but you’re wrong about good foreign code writers. Does the name Linus Torvalds mean anything to you? He wrote the Linux kernel (on which companies providing thousands of jobs rely heavily – from Google to IBM to just about every ISP out there, everything is built on Linux), and the git revision control system (which is heavily used by companies like github and gitlab, creating thousands of jobs).
            He was born in Helsinki, Finland. He was here on an H1-B before obtaining the citizenship in 2010.
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds
            Who do you think makes stuff like http://yandex.com/ — a complete replacement for pretty much anything Google offers? Right, foreign code writers (Russians in Russia).
            obamacare.com is a typical example of severe mismanagement: Clueless morons thinking “the more people we throw at the task, the faster it will get done (very much wrong for any job that isn’t pure manual labor – can 500 cooks prepare your food better or faster than 1, or will they get into each other’s way?)” and then throwing cheap foreign labor at it. Whoever made the decisions there should be fired and never get a job in that area again.
            But that doesn’t change the fact that our education system doesn’t create enough engineers, and sometimes you don’t have the time to completely train someone on the job. (If you had a heart attack, would you want to have the surgery done by someone who just graduated in Gender Studies but is willing to learn, because we couldn’t find anyone who actually knows anything about the heart?)
            Yes, there are great engineers right here – but getting hold of them is impossible because they already work at Google, IBM, Apple, Microsoft or wherever. There’s not enough of them, so sometimes you have to look into hiring people from a country with an education system that actually works.
            This is certainly not to say you should go looking abroad FIRST (which some companies do these days), or that you need to hire people BECAUSE they’re part of a minority or whatever (again something bigger companies tend to do these days, see the recent Google memo).
            For those doing something right, it’s all about finding someone who can do the job.

          • I agree with some of the needs but FINLAND is a NOT India , who have very WEIRD customs and traditions that are in sever conflict with the US normals, and HURT the US citizens.
            Boing is constantly in a LAYOFF MODE, they are very PROUD of their ability to GET them OUT in an HOUR paychecks and all , at Evert Wa. these ENGINEERS are FORCED to move with their families like FRUIT PICKERS , YOU offer some FULL TIME “permanent” full pay jobs for local CITIZENS and you will have a LONG LINE waiting.
            Another advantage for the locals is a UNION, OK OK don’t start screaming , if you do not want a union representing your professionals then YOU must do the jobs they provide,like: hiring halls,apprenticeship and state of the art training,safe,clean workplace rules ect .

          • I agree with pretty much all of this – just have to add that a lot of people in India are aware of those customs and traditions being weird and harmful – and don’t agree with them and are more than ready to give them up.
            I’ve met Indians who have lived in India all their lives but who would be better Americans than your average Clinton supporter.
            Those are the ones I wouldn’t mind getting H-1B visa if they have the right skills. If you move to another country, certainly learn its language and (at least mostly) live by its rules.
            The reason why so many laid off Boeing engineers have a problem finding a new job is primarily that they’re highly specialized in areas not all that many companies are working on – someone who knows everything there is to know about jet engines isn’t going to be too helpful creating the next generation smartphone. And while there is some overlap there, I can understand why a car company would rather hire someone with equivalent experience in car engines (and of course the jet engine engineer might not be too fond of the idea of switching fields either).
            I’m not sure there’s any way to fix that.
            Agreed about unions — they’re a good thing as long as they don’t go overboard.

          • nope tons of IT’s and computer geeks , even cooks and waiters, some going to Space X, the LUCKY ones.
            the Hindu gettos are DISCUSTING and they build the exact same gettos world wide !!!
            we don’t need and new minorities in the USA! They NEED US!

  2. A WAR against this TRASH is much BETTER than any RACIST/Zionist CRAP!
    BUILD the WALL and ENFORCE the LAWS against SCUMBAG INSURGENT ALIENS yes the JEWS also!

    Reply

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