Being paid the same as the other guy doesn't necessarily mean the wages themselves stayed the same. Adding H1B candidates to the talent pool exerts downward pressure on salary due to the law of supply and demand. I can't say for sure whether the allure of a green card or threat of deportation play a material factor in lowering the average salary that H1B immigrants are willing to accept. But in an environment where talent is treated as fungible (even if it isn't always so), any such downward pressure affects everyone.
replyThe prevailing wage for H1B software engineers is a very good salary for most software engineers in the world.
replyIt's common for the prevailing wage to be double what that person could earn in their country of origin.
That's the parent's argument. Prevailing wage in country A is X. Prevailing wage in country B is Y, and according to your numbers X > 2Y. Person from country B emigrates to country A and accepts wage 1.9Y, putting downward pressure on the jobs in country A at wage X.
replyYeah, I'm agreeing.
replyYou don't need the carrot of a green card or the stick of deportation to make a software engineer on an H1B accept a depressed wage, because it's not depressed relative to their alternatives.
And still exert downward pressure on wages. Just by virtue of having more people in the pool.
replyThis would only make sense if there are a finite number of possible jobs and that more jobs are never added as an economy grows.
replyThe idea is that the "same wage" you are talking about is too low to hire enough employees in the time needed that the company needed so they had to look abroad for people willing to work for that amount.
replyThe reality is everyone shamelessly cheats at this. "Oh, woe is me! I put out a classified ad in the paper edition of the Witchita County Post-Dispatch, instructing interested applicatants to snail-mail their resume and fax their cover letter—and somehow, no Americans applied! I guess I will just have to use H-1B, sigh"
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