Comment

Comment on Trump signs proclamation imposing $100K annual fee for H-1B visa applications

The H1-B visa was bastardised from a program targeting speciality workers to just importing workers to undercut local ones (as since your visa is tied to your employer, your bargaining options are limited).

Charging $100k/year wouldn’t be the change I’d make personally but would probably help with the excesses (I’d personally just abolish it, or mandate a minimum wage of 200k/y, or only allow it for unionised locations).

The thing I worry about with this change is that employers would still exploit the workers and pay them like $40k even if they have to hand $100k to the government for that privilege.

source

Sort:hotnew top

grue@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

Charging $100k/year wouldn’t be the change I’d make personally but would probably help with the excesses (I’d personally just abolish it, or mandate a minimum wage of 200k/y, or only allow it for unionised locations).

The thing I worry about with this change is that employers would still exploit the workers and pay them like $40k even if they have to hand $100k to the government for that privilege.

In other words, you’ve explained exactly why the kleptocrats prefer charging the $100k fee instead of setting a minimum wage: it accomplishes the racism and graft without the nasty side effect of empowering workers.

source
- jonne@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Yeah, maybe the exploitation is what it’s really about, no matter how much it would cost them in actual dollars.
  
  source
Tower@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Of course the companies will still prefer to take the H1B workers - they’re much easier to exploit thanks to the visa requirements.

source
immutable@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
On the one hand I feel like a $100k fee is a great way to disincentivize employers from pretending they can’t find qualified candidates in America and bring in workers they can more easily coerce.

On the other hand, the trump administration thus far has been firmly on the side of the employers so I have to imagine there’s more to this proclamation.

Based on how the administration has worked so far I imagine it will be selectively enforced as a chain they can yank if any of the tech CEOs step out of line. Show up with a golden trinket, no enforcement or some kind of waiver. Provide any kind of resistance or even just fail to fawn enough, millions in penalties.

source
- jonne@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  The fact that the employers are on board with the plan definitely makes me suspicious. Maybe they made the 100k tax deductable so it doesn’t actually cost them anything or something like that?
  
  source