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Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

(www.reuters.com)
1245 points mriguy | 2 comments | 19 Sep 25 19:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.468s | source
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cogman10 ◴[19 Sep 25 20:25 UTC] No.45306123[source]▶
IMO, the fee is the wrong thing that needs adjusting. It's the salary that should be adjusted. The minimum salary for an H1B should be $200k. It's something like 50k right now which is ridiculous especially with all the restrictions an applicant is under. It both suppresses wages and abuses the worker.
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nine_k ◴[19 Sep 25 20:34 UTC] No.45306221[source]▶
Can every industry pay $200k? I bet software, AI, or finance would be okay paying $200k, while e.g. hardware, aerospace, or biotech would have a harder time.

The idea of requiring a high salary is reasonable, but I'd make it rather e.g. 120% of the median salary in a particular industry.

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Jcampuzano2 ◴[19 Sep 25 20:39 UTC] No.45306283[source]▶
Dare I say - If you're desperate for skilled workers, they should probably be highly compensated due to simple supply and demand.

If you can't find somebody skilled enough here to work for 200k or less, then you should probably be paying 200k or more since you're looking for a role that is niche and low supply.

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scheme271 ◴[19 Sep 25 21:33 UTC] No.45306913[source]▶
There's also a bunch of organizations that are desperate and can't pay. E.g. a lot of rural and VA hospitals are staffed by H1B physicians. A rural hospital in the middle of Idaho won't attract a cardiologist through salary (i.e. the 500k/yr they can make in cities) and probably won't be able to afford a 100k application fee to get one. Also for lots of researchers and post-docs, 100k is more than their annual salary.

This fee is a great way to ensure that there's very little medical services available to rural populations and to help kill science in the US among other things.

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1. cogman10 ◴[19 Sep 25 23:04 UTC] No.45307823[source]▶
I'm from Idaho and grew up in rural Idaho. My mother was a nurse for such a hospital.

Rural hospitals are lucky to have any doctor on staff let alone a cardiologist. They are mostly staffed by nurses for quick patch-up work and life flights to major medical centers.

H1B doesn't solve the problem of poor communities getting poor healthcare. Frankly, it costs too much to become a doctor which limits where doctors can be employed. Plenty would like to work rural, but not with $500,000 in student loans. And no, that's no joke. I have a nephew going to medical school in Idaho and that's what his loans are.

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2. czl ◴[20 Sep 25 14:15 UTC] No.45313610[source]▶
The question to ask is why it costs so much to become a doctor in the USA vs other countries and then work to address that.

A serious problem should not be treated with a band-aid and if you think a band-aid is ok do not be surprised the problem gets worse.