By Kate Morrissey, The San Diego Union-Tribune
Companies that depend on H-1B visas for a substantial part of their workforce may have a tougher time hiring more as Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, has introduced legislation to restrict loopholes in their application process.
His proposal comes after Southern California Edison (SCE) laid off about 400 employees in early 2015 and brought in workers through consulting companies. Those consulting companies are heavy users of H-1B visas to obtain employees, reportedly at salaries that undercut those of American workers.
“It was pretty easy to see that wasn’t the intent of H-1B, which is to make up for shortage when you cannot find enough labor at any price,” Issa said in an interview.
Edison said in a statement at the time of the layoffs that it was “not hiring H-1B workers to replace displaced employees. Any H-1B visa workers SCE does hire for its own workforce are paid a wage comparable to SCE's domestic workforce."
Companies that have a certain proportion of H-1B employees, 15 percent or higher for companies with more than 50 employees, have to submit paperwork with H-1B applications showing they advertised the job to American workers, and considered their applications. Currently employers can be exempted from that paperwork if the potential employee holds a master’s degree or is paid at least $60,000 annually.
The H-1B visa program allows workers to come to the United States in a temporary, non-immigrant status. The visa lasts for three years with the option to renew for another three. While in the U.S., H-1B visa holders can apply for green cards.
Issa’s bill would remove the master’s degree exemption and increase the salary exemption to $100,000 annually.
Issa’s bill has bipartisan support, including backing from the San Diego delegation in Congress, including Democrats Scott Peters, Juan Vargas and Susan Davis and Republican Duncan Hunter.
Almost 4,300 people were certified to work in San Diego on H-1B visas in 2015, according to data from the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation. The data does not specify the workers’ nationalities.
About 8 percent, or 337 people, were paid salaries under the $60,000 exemption. Close to 64 percent, or 2,735 people, were paid less than $100,000.
The lowest annual salary, at $22,000, was for a master teacher at Park’s Global Martial Arts Inc. The highest salary, at $400,000, was for a model at No Ties Management LLC.
Of the 948 companies that obtained certifications for H-1B visas for San Diego area employees in 2015, Qualcomm Technologies Inc., had the most at 953 employees with an average annual salary of $102,095. The next highest company, Tata Consultancy Services Limited, which was one of the consulting groups involved in the Edison controversy, had 103 employees certified for H-1B visas with an average annual salary of $74,559.
A representative for Tata, Benjamin Trounson, declined to comment for this story.
“We don’t engage in industry speculation, so there isn’t anything for us to offer on this topic at this stage,” Trounson said.
Qualcomm did not respond to requests for comment about whether it would be affected by the changes in time for publication.
Matt Rifat, president of Alcala Labs, said that the one employee hired through an H-1B visa for the company last year is an H-1B success story. He said Alcala recruited for 18 months for a geneticist, and, after finding no one, pursued and hired an Austrian geneticist in 2015.
After coming to the U.S., the geneticist fell in love and married an American woman. He continues to work for Alcala and is now applying to adjust his status.
“For the scientific and biotech community, it’s really valuable, and, in my experience, it’s not being abused,” Rifat said of the H-1B visa program. “Had an American shown up with those qualifications, we would’ve hired them.”
Issa said that the changes would actually help the biotech community because the U.S. only allocates 85,000 H-1B visas per year. Those visas are assigned through lottery.
“Every year, in a matter of hours, we oversubscribe beyond the entire 85,000 slots, plus,” Issa said. “There’s no question that if you were to take the best and the brightest, most highly needed, most highly compensated, you wouldn’t do it by lottery, and yet lottery is how it’s done.”
Issa said he hopes to make further H-1B reforms in the future but that this legislation was what seemed doable in the current legislative climate.
©2016 The San Diego Union-Tribune Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
