Federal Government Information Technology

New Data on H-1B Visas Prove That IT Outsourcers Hire a Lot But Pay Very Little

Nextgov: Hard numbers have been released by the U.S. government agency that screens visas for high-skilled foreign workers, and they are not pretty.

Data made available by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for the first time show that the widely made complaint about the visa program is true: a small number of IT outsourcing companies get a disproportionately high number of H-1B visas and pay below-average wages to their workers.

The H-1B program was put in the spotlight in April, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order called “Buy American, Hire American” as part of his push to tighten immigration rules. Three months later, the USCIS formally disclosed the number of H1-B visas issued over the last two years by employer. Previously, the data was only available as estimates for companies petitioning for information, or by request under the Freedom of Information Act.

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