The Hindu Business Line : H-1B professionals earning less than US counterparts: Report

THE wages for H-1B workers in computer programming occupation are overwhelmingly concentrated at the bottom of the US pay scale, despite a Federal stipulation that US employers must pay them the same as US professionals, a report by the Centre for Immigration Studies (CIS) has claimed.

"In spite of the requirement that H-1B workers be paid the `prevailing wage', theyearn significantly less than their American counterparts. On average, applications for H-1B workers in computer occupations were for wages $13,000 less than Americans in the same occupation and state," the CIS, a non-profit research organisation in the US, said in its recent report titled "The bottom of the pay scale - Wages for H-1B computer programmers".

The temporary visa programme `H-1B' enables US employers to hire professional-level foreign workers for a period of up to six years. As per the law, employers must pay H-1B workers either the same rate as other employees with similar skills and qualifications or the "prevailing wage" for that occupation and location, whichever is higher. This prevents the hiring of foreign workers, from depressing US wages and protects foreign workers from exploitation.

The report revealed that wages for H-1B workers in computer programming occupations were overwhelmingly concentrated at the bottom of the US pay scale and that wages on Labour Condition Applications (LCAs) for 85 per cent of them were for less than the median US wage in the same occupations and state.

It also claimed that applications for 47 per cent of H-1B workers were for wages even below the prevailing wages claimed by their employers. "Very few H-1B workers earned high wages by US standards. Applications for only four per cent of H-1B workers were among the top 25 per cent of wages for US workers in the same state and occupation," it said.

"The data suggests that, rather than helping employers meet labour shortages or bring in workers with needed skills, as is often claimed by programme users, the H-1B programme is instead more often used by employers to import cheaper labour," it added.

The report examined the wage data in Labour Department records for fiscal year 2004 and compared the wages with approved LCAs for H-1B workers in computer programming occupations to the wage levels of US workers in the same occupation and location.