I’m not a big fan of guest-worker programs, and I think that tech firms pressing for more H1-B visas don’t face genuine worker shortages so much as shortages of fresh graduates with exactly the right skills and willing to work for low pay. (In my field, employers are accustomed to on-the-job training and providing time off for new hires to study for actuarial exams — what tech firms are doing seems to be the equivalent of expecting that newly hired actuaries have all their actuarial exams completed and have learned the valuation software already, to boot.)
But here’s a compromise: employers get the visas, with the restriction that their foreign workforce, in any particular job classification, be no more than 50% of the total, the foreign workers be paid according to the same payscale, and the company is required to pay an additional 25% payroll tax (with a minimum of, say, $4 per hour) for each visa’d worker.
Thoughts?
(This is, of course, purely hypothetical. I’m increasingly inclinded to think commenter Yancy is on the right track with a mass legalization by executive order.)
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