What the proposed American Tech Workforce Act means for your American dream
2 min read
The American Tech Workforce Act looks to incentivize American organizations to hire local workers. The bill proposes a wage floor for H-1B workers to be set at the higher of the yearly pay last paid to an American worker who filled the position or $110,000.
This could create an untenable burden on the US arms of Indian IT companies. But, do remember that all H-1B workers even under current guidelines should be paid the higher actual wages or prevailing wages for workers with the same position. The proposed bill if passed into law could generate a bidding war for eligible foreign nationals.
Instead, a system like the Canadian one that gives additional points for wage levels would be more objective in my opinion.
American Tech Workforce Act
The bill further seeks to eliminate the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program that allows certain foreign students to gain work experience.
A big attraction to availing of an expensive, US education is the ability to gain work experience of one year at least and up to 3 years for STEM students. Eliminating OPT would hurt the revenue of US universities that attract thousands of foreign students as students will run to nations like Canada that give post-graduation options to gain work experience with an option to move to more permanent status in the country.
[HCL Technologies underpaid H-1B visa workers, report claims]
The proposed limit of one-year work authorization when organizations, staffing companies, or third parties fill positions at end customers would be a great deterrent for Indian IT companies.
This is because the business model for many of them includes services and staffing support at the client site. If they have to incur expenses to file H-1B renewals every year it could become prohibitively expensive.
