From time to time I’ve mentioned that, despite the requirements of the law, paying H-1B visa holders less than the prevailing wage was a commonplace and some of the most vocal demanders that many more such visas be issued were among the primary offenders. Here’s a bit of supporting evidence:
January 13, 2014, 12:27 PM — A former Oracle sales manager is suing the vendor, alleging he was fired shortly after complaining of discriminatory actions by his superior and other company officials.
Ian Spandow was a high-performing sales manager at Oracle in Europe and later California, according to his lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. After coming aboard in 2005, he trained more than 1,000 new hires and gave skills coaching to hundreds of others, the suit states.
Spandow was subsequently promoted in January 2008 to the position of coaching manager, and after continued success was promoted to work as a sales manager at Oracle’s U.S. headquarters in Redwood Shores, according to the suit.
Despite performing well in his new role, Spandow, who is Irish, “experienced discriminatory and retaliatory conduct based on his national origin and after his complaint of various improper practices, including the company’s discriminatory pay practices of employees based on their national origin,” the suit states.
Here’s the really egregious part:
In September 2012, Spandow asked for permission to transfer an Oracle employee working in India to California. Spandow wanted to give the employee, who had a good track record, “a compensation level that was equivalent to Caucasian employees hired by Oracle for the same position.” But Spandow’s manager denied the request and told Spandow to offer the worker a “substantially lower” amount of money, according to the suit.
“I can’t in good conscience, even mention $50K/$50 to him,” Spandow said of the employee in an email to his supervisor, Ryan Bambling, that was cited in the lawsuit. “It would be nothing short of discriminating against him based on his ethnicity/country of origin. How or what do I have to do/write to get a reasonable (60+) offer to him?’
This prompted a “stern response” and warning to Spandow, the suit claims.
Spandow subsequently raised his concerns with his sales director, Keith Trudeau, who said the lower salary offer would be “good money for an Indian,” according to the suit.
Now, presumably, we’re talking about an L1 visa in this particular case but the principle is pretty much the same.
I am very skeptical that there’s actually a shortage of qualified science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workers here in the U. S. What I think we actually have is an overabundance of companies that want to pay lower wages and seize on importing workers as a strategy for doing that.
That you don’t hear about it more frequently is not evidence that it’s rare but an indicator of how few of the imported workers complain.
Well, how do you expect Ellison to pay for all those islands and yachts he buys if he has to pay the bloody wogs what he pays the ever diminishing number of white men that work for him?
Also note that these kinds of comments about pay scales never end up applying to the executive class in any given company.
First rule of business, don’t hire anybody with an Irish name, they probably think they know their rights and tend to be loud about it.
[T]hey probably think they know their rights and tend to be loud about it.
ISWYDT
You mean like “Shaw” or “de Valera”?
There’s truth on both sides of the H-1B visa argument.
Anti-visa folks are telling the truth: there are adequate skilled workers already here in the states, either by birth or another Visa program, to fill the available jobs in the tech industries.
Employers are telling the truth: it REALLY IS hard to find enough US citizens willing to make a 5-7 year commitment to an employer that’s paying them below scale.
Lose of the visa provides additional unspoken leverage that is not available for a US worker.
At the top, marginal differences in talent mean vast sums of money and tremendous power always end up in the hands of a small clique. Everywhere else, talent doesn’t mean shit. Companies don’t really want the best talent, they want the cheapest talent. One sees it over and over again, if only one cares to look.
@Kelly, could you expand on what you mean by “a 5-7 year commitment . . . below scale?” Do you mean that technology employers are worried that Americans are more mobile and will leave before the employers believe they will receive a return on their time and training, as well as possibly take knowledge to their competitors?
Perhaps Steve Jobs’ non-poaching agreement is explanatory.
PD, I took Kelly’s statement to mean that the employers expect employees to make at least a five to seven year commitment on any job, with the expectation that during that time they will be paid a lower amount than would have been expected a few years before, regardless of performance. That seems to be the way things are working now. But don’t expect any company to reward that service with anything other than a lay-off after one’s salary and seniority start going up. Amazing how in every RIFF it is the people who have been there a long time that get sacked, regardless of performance.
The lesson that employees need to learn is that they should promise to work for their employers for life, but should be plotting their next move at all times. Because you can be damned sure that management is planning the next RIFF.
Perhaps Steve Jobs’ non-poaching agreement is explanatory.
LOL
Give H1-B visa holders the right to jump ship and work for another employer once here in the USSA and, miraculously, the problem is solved. Employer gets needed worker, worker gets better pay. Now if we could just open the medical, legal and haircutting markets to similar competition.
The best part of this story is that you can tell people about it, and they simply refuse to believe it. “Of COURSE the big Silicon Valley firms all pay EVERYONE top money! Haven’t you heard?” You don’t really have to fool all the people all the time, just enough of the people every election cycle. Or every advertizing cycle, which is helpfully tied to the timing of the Super Bowl.