Cheap Labor

US companies have been bringing in workers on visas at cheaper rates than citizen workers. This is a legalized way to suppress market pay rates, and has been widely used by technology companies.

Technology companies such as IBM and Microsoft are now firing workers, though the visa workers aren't necessarily the first to be let go.


http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9126805
Microsoft Corp. said it is cutting a "significant number" of foreign workers as part of the layoff of 1,400 employees last week, a number that is due to reach 5,000 over the next 18 months.
The company isn't detailing how many of the workers losing their jobs are in the U.S. on a visa, however.
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But there is nothing in the law that requires a company to cut the jobs of H-1B workers before U.S. workers, said experts. David Kussin, an immigration attorney at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, said, "In fact, the law is very well designed to say that you have to treat H-1Bs the same as U.S. citizens in all regards."


http://www.usatoday.com/money/topstories/2009-02-01-1127659341_x.htm
Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.
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The dozen banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.
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As the economic collapse worsened last year -- with huge numbers of bank employees laid off -- the numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP's analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in the 2007 budget year to 4,163 in fiscal 2008.
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Foreigners are attractive hires because companies have found ways to pay them less than American workers.
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Companies are required to pay foreign workers a prevailing wage based on the job's description. But they can use the lower end of government wage scales even for highly skilled workers; hire younger foreigners with lower salary demands; and hire foreigners with higher levels of education or advanced degrees for jobs for which similarly educated American workers would be considered overqualified.
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"The system provides you perfectly legal mechanisms to underpay the workers," said John Miano of Summit, N.J., a lawyer who has analyzed the wage data and started the Programmers Guild, an advocacy group that opposes the H-1B system.
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Beyond seeking approval for visas from the government, banks that accepted federal bailout money also enlisted uncounted foreign workers, often in technology jobs, through intermediary companies known as "body shops." Such businesses are the top recipients of the H-1B visas.