From a commentary by Karen Pedersen at IEEE Spectrum:
In 2014 (the last year we have good data), Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro, and Tata Consultancy used 21,695 visas, or more than 25 percent of all private-sector H-1B visas used that year. Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Uber, for comparison, used only 1,763 visas, or 2 percent.
What’s the difference? Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro, and Tata are all outsourcing companies. Their business model involves using H-1B visas to bring low-cost workers into the United States and then renting those workers to other companies. Their competitive advantage is price. That is, they make their money by renting their workers for less than companies would have to pay American workers.
This is the real story of the H-1B visa. It is a tool used by companies to avoid hiring American workers, and avoid paying American wages. For every visa used by Google to hire a talented non-American for $126,000, ten Americans are replaced by outsourcing companies paying their H-1B workers $65,000.
And those are just the H-1Bs. The stories I could tell you about L-1s!
Just hired my first H-1B ever. Paying her the same as everyone else. Guess I missed a real opportunity.
Steve
This site might be interesting to you. The total number of H-1Bs in hospitals is 7,765 and in physicians’ offices is another 5,081.
By comparison the number of H-1Bs in IT is 335,052, the number in management, scientific, and technical consulting is 36,877, and the number in architectural, engineering, and related services is 16,970. That’s obviously enough to push wages down which is what’s been seen in technology.
BTW there are twice as many L-1s issued annually as H-1Bs and there is no quota for them.
We really would be better off if those 335,052 were on a quick path to citizenship.
Anyway, I continue on in my firm belief that the H-1B visas should be auctioned, with the highest 335,052 offered salaries getting the visas. (Or revamp the visa system, and put the twice-as-many L-1s into the same pool for a simple million)
We can absorb more tech immigrants. Even if it pushes tech salaries down, they are still going to be way above average salaries, which will pay lots of taxes, and create a need for more Indian food in our cities.