←back to thread

1245 points mriguy | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
jatins ◴[] No.45306204[source]
While the stated intention is to prevent abuse by consultancies, I think this effectively kills the H1B program. Who will be able to afford this?

Not startups. 100k is like 75% of base comp in most bay area startups

Among BigTech, maybe like ~20 companies will be willing to pay this per employee.

replies(5): >>45306264 #>>45306293 #>>45306327 #>>45306502 #>>45307568 #
zer00eyz ◴[] No.45306293[source]
> Not startups. 100k is like 75%

I dont know of a single person here on a visa making less than 150k salary. They get the same stock, bonus and benefits that every one else gets.... it's well over 300k to have that staff member when all is said and done.

You're not adding on 100k a year, you're adding on 100k for a 3-6 year employee.

Even if that works out to 20k a year, it's pocket change in the grand scheme of things.

replies(4): >>45306351 #>>45306362 #>>45306461 #>>45308611 #
deadbabe ◴[] No.45306461[source]
If it’s pocket change then why not also pay the domestic employees $20k more a year?
replies(2): >>45306594 #>>45307597 #
zer00eyz ◴[] No.45306594[source]
Because the person they are importing is probably brighter than you. If you're talented and smart you come to the US and likely the Bay Area (or west coast) to work in tech. Why? For the same reason that baseball players all end up in the US and Soccer players end up in Europe: they all want to play against, and with the best in the big show.

All the H1B's I have worked with are whip smart, hard working, and in general amazing people. I cant say the same for all my localy sourced colleges. The tragedy of the economics in most of these cases was that they were making the same amount of money as their peers and not more...

In a lot of cases companies are getting a Steff Curry or a Lionel Messi and paying them the average of the rest of the team...

replies(4): >>45306843 #>>45307625 #>>45307738 #>>45307794 #
1. ApolloFortyNine ◴[] No.45306843{3}[source]
>All the H1B's I have worked with are whip smart, hard working, and in general amazing people. I cant say the same for all my localy sourced colleges.

Anecdotally myself, I've worked with great ones yes, but the majority aren't incredible.

In the tech arms of banks you can see a lot of what I would describe as at best regular software engineers, nothing special.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-h1b-visa-middlemen-c...