H-1B Prevailing Wage Claims vs. Reality:
What They Say, Versus What They Pay

By Robert Hill, CUNY, Murphy Institute for Worker Education

External Links and Resources

First, here are URLs pointing to the numbers of foreign guest workers:

• http://www.cis.org/articles/2011/estimating-h1b-population-2-11.pdf
• http://blogs.sacbee.com/the-public-eye/2010/07/the-number-of-skilled-temporary.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Zok0w0514
• http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/yearbook/2009/ois_yb_2009.pdf

Here are URLs to explain the loopholes and gaming of the visa "system":

•   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

How to hire and sponsor foreign workers:

• http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/Archive/CohenAndGrigsbyPrevailingWage.txt
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2IQ4XFNyiU (KPIX June 22, 2007)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhGG2O2jaCU (KPIX June 26, 2007)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrapEizmuyM (Lou Dobbs Interview June 2008)
• http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/Fragomen2.txt
• http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/29473
• http://www.zazona.com/NewsArchive/2008-07-08%20Bogus%20Cisco%20job%20ad%20is%20bad%20timing%20for%20Fragomen%20law%20firm.htm
• http://www.jobdestruction.info/ShameH1B/Library/Archives/FragomenCiscoJobAd.htm

A candid admission:

Legal Rejection of U.S. Workers, by Joel Stewart, Esq., April 24, 2000.

" . . . even in a depressed economy, Employers who favor aliens have an arsenal of legal means to reject all U.S. workers who apply."

• http://www.ilw.com/articles/2000,0424-Stewart.shtm

History of the H-1B visa program:

• http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/H1BHistory.htm

You might begin to wonder how a visa originally for sheep herders "evolved" into a visa use for tech jobs.

• http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc1503/article_1312.shtml

Career Destruction Sites Is What U.S. Colleges Have Become, By Gene Nelson, Volume 15, Number 3 (Spring 2005)

• http://articles.nydailynews.com/2000-05-03/news/18136141_1_h-1b-visa-program-foreign-workers

"Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), chairman of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, makes the link even more explicit. When asked whether Republicans should side with the computer-industry workers or the employers, he said, "This is a very important issue for the high-tech executives who give the money." "

• http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/Mich.pdf   P. 13

"A major supporter of pending legislation which would increase the H-1B quota, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), said, “This is not a popular bill with the public. It’s popular with the CEOs . . . This is a very important issue for the high-tech executives who give the money.” "

• http://www.programmersguild.org/archives/lib/Cash/njtd20000505davis.htm

National Journal Technology Daily, May 5, 2000 PM Edition, Committee To Address Bill Eliminating H-1B Cap

But Rep. Tom Davis, R-VA, a member of the GOP leadership active on high-tech issues, said Thursday that many of the restrictions opposed by industry in Smith's bill "will come off" at some point in the process. But he said the bill will have to retain some anti-fraud and worker protection measures.

"This is not a popular bill with the public," Davis said. "It's popular with the CEOs."

• http://articles.sfgate.com/2000-10-04/news/17663111_1_h-1b-visas-high-tech-workers-visa-bill

"Once it's clear (the visa bill) is going to get through, everybody signs up so nobody can be in the position of being accused of being against high tech," said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, after the vote. "There were, in fact, a whole lot of folks against it, but because they are tapping the high-tech community for campaign contributions, they don't want to admit that in public."

• http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/ProposedMSPhDExemption.txt
• http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/Archive/PostdocGauntlet.txt

Eric Weinstein, "How and Why Government, Universities, and Industry Create Domestic Labor Shortages of Scientists and High-Tech Workers," NBER, Harvard University, 1998,

• http://nber.nber.org/~peat/PapersFolder/Papers/SG/NSF.html
• http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/ForeignStudentGreenCards.txt
• http://www.vdare.com/rubenstein/050215_nd.htm