Bill Gates to Plea for More Non-US Workers

My recent article on the Abramoff lobbying dealings with Microsoft really struck a nerve (AmerChron Mag, Feb. 24). I have received responses from both irate lobbyists and those that have been affected by the lobbying efforts of "Team Abramoff". Specifically the negative affect due to the efforts and the millions of dollars from Microsoft Corporation in supporting these H-1B visa expansion efforts. Now, as expected, the deeper I dug, the larger the tip of the ice berg. Even the recently deceased free-market thinker, Milton Friedman felt that the H-1B visa program was used as a "farm system" for companies such as Microsoft and Intel. Mr. Friedman stated; "There is no doudt, that the [H-1B] program is a benefit to their employers, enabling them to get workers at a lower wage, and to that extent, it is a subsidy." There is no doubt that the H-1B visa system provides a subsidy that lowers the wage market overall for IT talent.

On March 7th, there will be a hearing at 9:30 AM, EST, before the US Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee. Bill Gates, the Chairman of Microsoft (and the richest person in the world), will once again be making a plea for additional increases in H-1B visas. (You will note that based on the lobbying efforts of Microsoft and other large corporations, the H-1B Visas were increased twice since the mid-1990's. A large portion of the past H-1B lobbying efforts were performed by "Team Abramoff".)

It is unknown whether there will be an advocate to present at the hearing on behalf of the US workers that would be effected by these visa increases.

According to reports, Mr. Gates will claim that there is a shortage of US technical writers and programmers. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states, as of Q3, 2006, that American Software Engineers, Computer Scientists and System Analysts had a net loss of 93,000 jobs over the last year. Many of those currently looking for jobs in these areas state that there are usually only a few ads for these positions and when they are checked out, half of them are not real jobs. Apparently some corporations continue to run the ads for longer periods just to support the claim that there are no Americans available for the positions.

Mr. Gates will probably also take the approach that the H-1B workers will be paid the "prevailing wage". This means wages equal with what the US. workers earn in the same position. The DOL defines four levels of “prevailing wage,” and over 80% of H-1B are at Level One, the lowest level. The DOL now approves H-1B programmers to work in Silicon Valley for $40k per year- hardly the "prevailing Silicon Valley wage" - and hardly an indication that these workers are the "best and brightest". The real negative issue with the H-1B visa is that the law allows the employers to hire lower paid foreign workers, and many that only have basic average skills, even if the employers have a stack of resumes from qualified US workers sitting on their desk.

What is really disturbing about the Microsoft connection with the H-1B issue is that they are not even making a show of trying to hire US high-tech workers. Microsoft did not attempt to recruit at any of the 22 California State University campuses, where many of the high-tech US computer workers graduate. Microsoft is also not participating at this year's Engineering Job Fair at CSUS.

To top off the hypocrisy of all this is the involvement of the special interest groups such as the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). This group is part of an annual $100 Million Dollar industry that specializes in processing corporate immigration documents. In addition, seven of the major H-1B users are not even US corporations. They are East Indian Outsourcing Firms. These organizations bring in Indian workers, train them and then transfer the workers, jobs and the technology back to India. This supports a major loss of US industry infrastructure.

Much of this information is readily available from the DOL and the US Programmers Guild. Mr. Kim Berry, President of the Guild has written in detail about this issue on the Guild's web site @ http://programmersguild.blogspot.com/ . Mr. Berry also believes that supporting New Jersey Congressman Pascrell's bill; H.R.4378; "Defend the American Dream Act of 2005" is a partial solution that would add US worker protection. The Guild also has other suggestions that would be fair to both the US workers and H-1B workers. Unfortunately, due to the efforts of companies such as Microsoft, Intel and their lobbyists, both US workers and H-1B visa holders have lost millions of dollars due to their subsequent lower wages and benefits.