The United states of America have complained that the Indian IT firms Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys are unfairly using the H-1B Visa system by putting extra tickets in the lottery. The Trump administration wants to remove this unfair advantage and come up with a better merit-based system. H-1B visas allow US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty locations.
A trump administration official revealed this news at the White House in a briefing last week. He said that these outsourcing firms are flooding the system with lotteries which increase their chances of winning. He said that these firms are applying for more number of visas than they can get by putting extra tickets.
The three firms have an average wage of H-1B Visas between $60000 and $65000. In contrast, the average silicon-valley software engineer has a wage of around $150,000. 80 percent of the H-1B workers are getting paid much lesser than the average wage. The official complained that the workers are often hired to replace the American workers for a very low rate, which is kind of against the values of the program, which is supposed to bring in skilled labor from around the globe.
Regarding this, Infosys stated “We are deeply committed to help US clients leverage technology to transform their businesses, empower their employees in new ways and become competitive. To do this, we continue to invest in the local markets where we operate, including hiring local American talent. Bringing education and training to our clients to narrow the skill gap in the US.
