> paying them much less to do the same damn job.

That isnt true. A SWE engineer working at the same level at Redmond gets paid the same band irrespective of visa status.

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invalidOrTaken 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

sure, but there's the obvious counterfactual: if those engineers were scarcer, that level would likely be paid more

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triceratops an hour ago | parent | next [-]

But it wouldn't result in more domestic workers being hired. Those companies would just have smaller workforces in the US and larger ones abroad.

Big Tech has hired functionally every domestic worker interested in and capable of doing the job. They pay so much already.

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kart23 an hour ago | parent [-]

this is just not true. the market for new grads is extremely bad. Microsoft could easily invest in more early career people, instead they're hiring more senior H1-Bs.

	▲	triceratops an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		You said it yourself. The market for new grads is bad. AI is better for senior employees than juniors. Visas don't affect this dynamic.
	▲	buriram 30 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[dead]

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fundad 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Correct!

Employers benefit from regulations that exist to benefit employers. We should have completely open borders or actually do what's best for citizen workers.

Employers would have to pay more competitive wages if the candidate pool was smaller. Then there is the free legal services given to some workers and not others, that leaves less budget overall for compensation.

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jeremyjh 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How about the contractors working for Microsoft?

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cyberax 2 hours ago | parent [-]

You can't work as a contractor on H1b. You need to be employed full-time.

	▲	jeremyjh 28 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		They would be employed by another company, and contracted to Microsoft. This is the arrangement for the majority of H1-B employees in general, but I do not know if Microsoft does this. Tech companies do not generally do this for their product teams, but may do it for their internal IT and reporting systems.

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boredatoms 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

and how much pressure do they feel to raise the band over time when theres a constant stream of people coming in form another country who accept anything presented because its still higher than back home