
How American tech workers are being sold out - 20years
http://nypost.com/2015/11/08/how-american-workers-are-being-sold-out/
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sportanova
The "tech worker shortage" is completely manufactured. The demand is high, but
the supply is definitely not low. The problem is that every company with a bit
of money thinks that it needs to hire an infinite number of 10xers. But when
the company gets these rockstar ninjas, all they end up doing is adding routes
in a RoR app. The dirty little secret is that the vast majority of corporate
(and startup) programming work is intellectually light weight and doesn't
require anything close to a 4-year CS degree.

It's ridiculous to support an expansion of the H1B - or even the H1B program
at all. It's just an excuse to increase supply and drive salaries down. If it
was anything else Infosys and Tata wouldn't be the top importers of H1Bs. If
there was a program that brought immigrants in, no strings attached I would
support it (even though it's against my interests as a programmer). People
should have a fair shot at working in the States - but not under onerous
conditions that unecessarily weaken the position of American workers

~~~
RealityVoid
Disclaimer: I am not a American and am contemplating trying to come to the US.
So I may be biased when writing this.

If you admit the demand being high, how can you deny the supply being low?
They depend on each other. If the supply is low, it is low compared to current
demand... and if it is high, it is high compared to current demand.

The best proof of the fact that there is a shortage in tech is the fact that
the salaries are very high. That is true not only in the US, it is true
everywhere (or at least in most places). Would increasing supply lower the
salaries in tech in the US? I think it would... and the employers do have an
interest in that happening. But that would happen no matter if the shortage is
real or not, so it proves nothing.

What I'm trying to say is that the shortage is mostly real and you have a
vested personal interest in keeping foreigners out and your salaries high...
and we, foreigners, want to be able to break into a high paying
market(especially if we feel we're being underpaid for our efforts and have
something economically valuable to offer).

It's fine if you say "we want foreigners out in order to keep our salaries
high and get a bigger slice of the pie", but it's a lie saying you're doing it
because of some other reason such as: there is no tech shortage so there's no
need for extra techies(false because of the high salaries), things are just
dandy the way they are, or that H1B's are being exploited and caring about
their fate.

And the other part of the discussion is not if a more relaxed visa strategy
would hurt some US devs immediate interrestes but wheather it would hurt long-
tern US interests. This isn't(in my view) as clear cut as the other aspects
I'm discussiong here, but my oppinion is that the US as a country could have
great gains from tech immigrants. This is a far lenghthier discussion though
and there are far more arguments and counter-arguments that I care going into
right now.

~~~
sportanova
With programming being a sexy job now, and all of the bootcamps pumping out
people, supply is higher than it's ever been before.

I haven't seen non-anecdotal evidence that salaries are inordinately high.
"Silicon valley" tech salaries rose by a total of 13.7% from 2010-2014. (Look
at the interactive chart at [http://media.dice.com/report/check-and-check-u-s-
technology-...](http://media.dice.com/report/check-and-check-u-s-technology-
salaries-and-bonuses-rise/))

A little more than 3% increase a year isn't ridiculous. Especially when US
inflation has averaged around 2% over that time period. And considering that
other places in the US aren't nearly as "hot" as the bay area.

The _real_ shortage is in people who live in the bay area, who can code a
prefix tree on a white board in under 30 minutes, who want to add routes all
day for the company's boring app, and who want to do it for less than the 3% a
year average increase.

If you add enough bizarre qualifications, you can say that there's a shortage
of anything: There's a shortage of Swift developers with 5 years experience!

American companies are notoriously bitchy about a talent shortage, but I think
it just about always comes down to "overqualified people don't want to take
underwhelming salaries". Right now, i believe good programmers are
dramatically underpaid for the value they create

I have a vested interest in keeping out foreigners who are being screwed over
with artificially low salaries and subsequently screwing natives over by
driving salaries down (like with Tata + Infosys). I'm fine with people coming
in, but it needs to be on a level playing field, and H1B doesn't do that. I'm
arguing for less restrictions around foreigners, and more restrictions on
companies gaming the system

------
nerdwaller
Has anyone experienced this first hand?

