On: Breaking up with America

[seanmcdirmid]

> I'd definitely wager that if you compared all Microsoft H1B software engineers to all non-H1B MS SE's, you'd see a drop in wages.

Why would you think this?

That information is publicly available; e.g. http://www.myvisajobs.com/Visa-Sponsor/Microsoft/356252_Sala...

I'm not sure what the "average salaries" for non-immigrants are, but you can get an idea here:

http://www.salarylist.com/company/Microsoft-Salary.htm

It doesn't look that different.

[owenmarshall → seanmcdirmid]

> Why would you think this?

Because that's been the pattern for most businesses. I doubt Microsoft is any different - why do you think it would be?

> It doesn't look that different.

The two pages you present compare "all MS salaries, globally" to "all MS H1B salaries, globally" - that's a meaningless comparison. A software engineer H1B is going to make more than a non-H1B tester.

Note again, I'm not trying to indict MS for anything here: I'm simply betting that MS is enjoying lower worker costs by employing H1B workers, just like many IT companies do.

I hope that's not the case, both for the H1B worker AND non-H1B workers.

[seanmcdirmid → owenmarshall]

From my limited experience, H1Bs seem to make as much as non-H1Bs. But then I work in China as an American on a work visa.