The Proposed H-1B Bill has created a lot of stir in the U.S. IT industry and foreign countries that might be affected if the law will be passed. Some claimed that this will address unemployment by allowing American citizens to obtain jobs that are usually outsourced.
H-1B visa allows foreign skilled workers to be employed by companies in the U. S. but on a limited stay only. However, they have an option to extend or apply for a permanent resident visa.
As reported by Chris Fuchs of NBCNews, two proposals of this bill are from Rep. Darell Issa and Rep. Zoe Lofgren. Republican Rep. Issa suggests requiring companies to pay the outsourced employees a huge $100,000 from the previous wage requirement of $60,000 making outsourcing more expensive. Also, this will only be applicable to companies with over 50 employees.
On the other hand, Democrat Rep. Lofgren's version proposes H-1B visas to those companies who can pay the highest salaries. She also aims to remove the standard H-1B visa limit in each country. This will allow businesses to hire outstanding skilled workers across the globe.
According to BBC, there are quite a number of applicants that will be affected primarily those coming from the Asian countries. If the law will be passed the foreign companies that are dependent on the H-1B visas like Tata Consultancy Services will be greatly affected. On the other hand, their American counterparts will still be able to continuously provide H-1B visas to their foreign employees and pay them using the old salary rate. This is the reason why some are quite skeptical about the real intentions of this bill. Shivendra Singh, Nasscom top executive explained to BBC that the unequal treatment between the foreign and American companies will not provide jobs to American workers at all since most American companies can still hire foreigners for a cheaper price.
The IT industry will surely be affected by this H-1B bill considering that there are a lot of IT companies in Silicon Valley alone that is outsourcing their employees. If the bill becomes successful they will be needing to employ American workers with a higher salary but may not be as skilled as their foreign counterparts. The question is, how will the government help affected companies in filling the possible job vacancies?
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