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October 26, 2005 | Comments: (0)

Comparison of programmer wages between U.S. nationals and H-1B visa workers

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In my Reality Check column online this week I summarized some of the findings of John Miano, a board member of the Programmer's Guild in his study, "The Bottom of the Pay Scale: Wages for H-1B Computer Programmers -- F.Y. 2004."

In that study he compared prevailing wages for programmers and analysts paid to U.S. citizen's versus the wages for the same jobs paid to non-U.S. citizens working in the country under the H-1B visa program.

I received some praise and some pans for the column. See Slashdot for the full gamut of opinions.

One of the main criticisms Miano received was that he did not take into account worker experience and if he had the wage comparison would not have been so skewed.

Here's Miano's response:

"Years of experience was not taken into consideration. The reason for this is, according to the law, age, experience, education etc. are not supposed to be taken into account for the prevailing wage. The law says H-1B workers are supposed to be paid the prevailing wage based upon location and occupation (not occupation, age, experience, etc.)"

Here's the specific citation:

8 USC [United States Code] 1182
(n) Labor condition application
(1) No alien may be admitted or provided status as an H?1B nonimmigrant in an occupational classification unless the employer has filed with
the Secretary of Labor an application stating the following:
(A) The employer?
(i) is offering and will offer during the period of authorized
employment to aliens admitted or provided status as an H?1B
nonimmigrant wages that are at least?
(I) the actual wage level paid by the employer to all other individuals with similar experience and qualifications for the specific employment in question, or
(II) the prevailing wage level for the occupational classification in
the area of employment, whichever is greater, based on the best information available as of the time of filing the application, and
(ii) will provide working conditions for such a nonimmigrant that will not adversely affect the working conditions of workers similarly
employed.

Here's Miano's explanation of the law:

First of all, the law giving the wage requirements for H-1B worker, 8
U.S.C. § 1182(n), states that employers must pay H-1B the HIGHER of that paid to workers with similar experience and qualifications or the prevailing wage for the occupation and location. Thus under the law, H-1B workers with skills and experience greater than average should be paid based upon those skills and experience and H-1B workers with skills and experience less than average (e.g. entry-level workers) should have their salary bumped up to the prevailing wage for the location and occupation.

By not considering age, education, skills, experience, etc. factors, the report is being conservative in measuring compliance in the law because these factors should only be coming into play when dealing with workers whose attributes should command a wage greater than the prevailing wage.

This aspect of the law makes sense. It would be contrary to public
policy for employers to drive out older workers using lower-paid
imported workers using the justification that they are less experienced.

In short, not considering age/skills/experience/education has no effect whatsoever on the validity of the report.

Finally, Miano adds this comment:

"I also point out [in the study] that the DOL [Department of Labor] does not have age data, only US Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS does.

As mentioned in the report, I would have *LOVED* to have used the actual USCIS data for visas actually issued. However, they don't put out that data (largely due to industry pressure).

Hopefully (as mentioned), this will put pressure on USCIS to start
releasing the whole thing. :-)"

Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on October 26, 2005 03:10 PM

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