Source: Olga Nesterova on X/Twitter — Private front-end.
People also share that this is causing travel disruption:
Relevant: President Donald J. Trump Suspends the Entry of Certain Alien Nonimmigrant Workers
Source: Olga Nesterova on X/Twitter — Private front-end.
People also share that this is causing travel disruption:
Relevant: President Donald J. Trump Suspends the Entry of Certain Alien Nonimmigrant Workers
The H1-B visa requires you to pay at least the prevailing wage, which is the average wage people are paid for the same position. At big companies like Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, etc., people on H1-B and similar visas (E-3, H1B1, etc) have the exact same starting salary and are in the exact same salary bands as US citizens.
There’s some companies that abuse H1-Bs by doing things like using weird obscure job titles and (contracting companies like Tata and Accenture come to mind), but just because some companies abuse a system doesn’t mean every company should be punished.
Immigrants are also under way more pressure than citizens. Doesn’t that you get the same salary when you’re expected to do 10h extra per week
You’re not mentioning salary bands which allow the same position and responsibilities to have up to 40% variation in salary, and promotions which allow you to officially state someone is not proven to work at the same level as another individual. Ah, and the restriction on the employee most powerful salary negotiation, the typical “I got a job offer and I’m leaving unless you match the salary”.
Also, you can’t really move jobs either. So a H1B friend of mine was in fact underpaid for the work he was doing because actually moving to the job title he was doing would’ve restarted the clock on his citizenship.
You can’t apply for citizenship from a H1-B. You have to get permanent residency (green card) first, then be a permanent resident for 5 years.
I’m not sure about other companies, but the big tech companies pay exactly the same regardless of whether you’re on a work visa or not. At the company I work at, bonuses and raises are formulaic based on performance, and the performance discussions/calibrations for ratings and promotions don’t take visa status into account at all (I’ve participated in them).
Smaller companies are less ethical, but they get a much smaller proportion of the H1-B visas.