Staffing – The H-1B Scam

Immigrants with H-1B visas that hold programming jobs are paid an average of $13,000 less per year than their native-born counterparts, according to a report by the Center for Immigration Studies. Apple, Microsoft and Oracle hire the most H-1B workers. Those who work for Apple are the best paid—75 percent of them earn the median wage or above for their position. At Microsoft, 45 percent earn more than the median. Oracle’s H-1B workers are the worst paid; 86 percent earn wages in the bottom quarter of the pay range for programming jobs.

Researchers for the Center for Immigration Studies say the data on the H-1B visa program, which was designed to enable companies to hire workers with special skills, suggests that the visas are being abused in order to exploit cheap labor.

The report recommends, among other steps, that employers be required to pay H-1B workers more than the average wage, to pressure employers to use the visas only for the most highly skilled workers.