The NYT has a column today laboring over the meaning of the H1-B visa program. It asks whether employers are treating U.S. workers fairly or whether the visa program is simply a way to get cheaper labor. Okay, this is really dumb. Of course the visa program is a way to get cheaper labor. Suppose the jobs that are filled by foreigners on the H1-B visa program offered $200k or $300k instead of the $50k-$80k that H1-B recipients get. Would there be more citizens willing to take these jobs? Of coure there would be. This is about wages, everyone who took any economic should be answer this question in about two seconds. Now, there is the second question, are we treating our tech workers fairly? Well, both Democratic and Republican administrations have worked hard to put manufacturing workers into direct competition with low-paid workers in the developing world. They have also thought it important to put many people in low-paying service sector jobs into direct comeptition with workers from the developing world through immigration policy (e.g. custodians, dishwashers, nannies). Are we treating our high tech workers unfairly if they face the same competition as textile workers and custodians? Only if we think that people with more education need more protection than people with less education.
--Dean Baker
