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>I'd note that Facebook was one of the only companies NOT conspiring to deflate the wages of half of the people that visit this site If you're referring to the

>I'd note that Facebook was one of the only companies NOT conspiring to deflate the wages of half of the people that visit this site If you're referring to the fact that it was reported yesterday that Facebook refused to participate in the "no poaching" agreement between Apple, Google, and other companies, it is worth noting that Facebook's CEO is involved in a totally different, and probably much more permanent and far-reaching strategy for suppressing engineer salaries: http://gawker.com/mark-zuckerbergs-self-serving-immigration-crusade-484912430 http://gawker.com/mark-zuckerbergs-self-serving-immigration-...

77ko 12y ago
Doesn't that potentially raise the salaries of all non-American engineers who might get jobs?
- EricDeb 12y ago
  Yes, at the expense of American engineering salaries. Not a bad thing for innovation/technology as a whole but does lower American salaries.
  - scient 12y ago
    As a H1B holder - I was hired because there was no-one competent enough to hire in the US and my salary seems to be significantly higher than the average engineers salary in the same area I work at. So its kind of a silly point imho. You would not have this immigration issue (issue as in companies trying to get larger quotas and less restrictive conditions) if you would have enough competent engineers in the US. The problem is that companies HAVE to look outside of the country to find capable work-force. It's also worth nothing that one of the prerequisites of getting an approval of a H1B visa is the fact that you can prove that the position you are trying to fill cannot be (at least easily) be filled with finding someone locally. You also need to show (and guarantee) that the person whom you are hiring on the visa, will get paid higher than average salary for the same position in that field. So essentially there are mechanisms in place to avoid companies bringing in pointless cheap labor - how those rules are enforced is up to the government tbh. It is also worth nothing that the "crusade" against current H1B laws also include some other, very important points, like getting rid of the silly H4 visa that H1B holders spouses are forced on. All in all I suggest digging a little more into the issue instead of commenting from a very shallow point of view.
cbr 12y ago
If someone happens to be born in a country with worse labor opportunities, should we just say "have you tried being born in the US?" Articles like the Gawker one you link to only make sense if American workers are the only ones who matter.
stormbrew 12y ago
On the other hand, strict immigration policies themselves depress wages for every person on the planet who's not American. I can guarantee you there are a lot of people think American businesses that hire H1Bs are fucking heroes.

77ko 12y ago

Doesn't that potentially raise the salaries of all non-American engineers who might get jobs?

EricDeb 12y ago
Yes, at the expense of American engineering salaries. Not a bad thing for innovation/technology as a whole but does lower American salaries.
- scient 12y ago
  As a H1B holder - I was hired because there was no-one competent enough to hire in the US and my salary seems to be significantly higher than the average engineers salary in the same area I work at. So its kind of a silly point imho. You would not have this immigration issue (issue as in companies trying to get larger quotas and less restrictive conditions) if you would have enough competent engineers in the US. The problem is that companies HAVE to look outside of the country to find capable work-force. It's also worth nothing that one of the prerequisites of getting an approval of a H1B visa is the fact that you can prove that the position you are trying to fill cannot be (at least easily) be filled with finding someone locally. You also need to show (and guarantee) that the person whom you are hiring on the visa, will get paid higher than average salary for the same position in that field. So essentially there are mechanisms in place to avoid companies bringing in pointless cheap labor - how those rules are enforced is up to the government tbh. It is also worth nothing that the "crusade" against current H1B laws also include some other, very important points, like getting rid of the silly H4 visa that H1B holders spouses are forced on. All in all I suggest digging a little more into the issue instead of commenting from a very shallow point of view.

cbr 12y ago

If someone happens to be born in a country with worse labor opportunities, should we just say "have you tried being born in the US?" Articles like the Gawker one you link to only make sense if American workers are the only ones who matter.

stormbrew 12y ago

On the other hand, strict immigration policies themselves depress wages for every person on the planet who's not American. I can guarantee you there are a lot of people think American businesses that hire H1Bs are fucking heroes.