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from the so-highly-skilled-we-need-second-jobs dept.
The Obama administration announced plans to permit the spouses of certain, "highly-skilled" H1B visa holders the right to work too. The backlog of green-card applications for H1B holders can be as much as 11 years. If the goal is to attract and keep more high-quality talent within the USA (rather than H1B off-shoring), it seems like streamlining the "green card" permanent residence process would be more effective. Making the H1B visa a mandatory path to a green card within a very short period, such as 2 years might be a much better way to encourage highly talented individuals to stay in the country compared to requiring more than a decade of uncertainty.
Some claim that this will actually have the perverse effect of enabling IT salaries to fall even further. The New York Times article notes there are representatives who question the wisdom of the proposal and that there is a 60-day comment window.
(Score: 2) by snick on Wednesday May 07 2014, @06:23PM
You do realize that the result would be to drive the median down, resulting in importing lower paid workers, which would drive the median down, resulting in importing lower paid workers ...
Yeah, I know. Feature, not bug.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 07 2014, @11:23PM
If we add people above our median, the median goes up. If we eliminate people below our median, the median goes up.
The only way the median could go down would be if things happened too suddenly and severely, shocking the economy into collapse. Well, OK then, don't be so sudden or severe.
If "importing lower paid workers" means people below the median, then just NO. That is the opposite of the idea. If you mean to bring in people at $123456 per year to replace those earning $543210 per year, then yeah that would be fine. It's an excellent idea in fact, because $123456 is still way above the median. We need more of pretty much anybody earning above the median.