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Desperately Seeking Visas

Submitted by Really!, Jan 4, 2008 12:04

GuildY/ ZazonY wrote: "Alan Greenspan, March 2007
"If we open up a significant window for skilled workers, that would suppress the skilled-wage level and end the concentration of income."

In May 2006, Computer and Mathematical occupations had an average annual salary of $69,240, based upon the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) Occupation and Employment Statistics Survey. Based on the difference between May 2003 and May 2006, salaries increased by 9.5%, slightly more than the 8.2% for all occupations. Programmers earned an average of $69,500 after a 7.7% increase that matched the national average.

Increasingly, these types of jobs are subject to global competition, not just domestic factors. Moreover, the BLS salary figures do not include increases in the value of benefits, which have become an important part of compensation in recent years.

At the higher end of the occupational grouping, computer and information scientists earned $96,440 after a 14.1% increase over the same 3 years, and computer software engineers $84,155 after a 9.5% increase. Two related engineering fields (not included in computer and mathematical occupations by BLS) are electrical engineers ($78,900 with a 9.4% increase) and computer hardware engineers ($91,250 with a 15.0% increase).

-- Page 10 of Driving jobs and Innovation Offshore The impact of high-skill Immigration Restrictions on America, National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) Policy Brief, Dec 2007
http://www.nfap.com/pdf/071206study.pdf

(1) Also encouraging is the fact that the after-inflation median income of all tax filers increased by an impressive 24% over the same period. Two of every three workers had a real income gain--which contradicts the Huckabee-Edwards-Lou Dobbs spin about stagnant incomes. This is even more impressive when you consider that "median" income and wage numbers are often skewed downward because the U.S. has had a huge influx of young workers and immigrants in the last 20 years. They start their work years with low wages, dragging down the averages.

(2) The key point is that the study shows that income mobility in the U.S. works down as well as up--another sign that opportunity and merit continue to drive American success, not accidents of birth. The "rich" are not the same people over time.

The study is also valuable because it shows that income mobility remains little changed from what similar studies found in the 1970s and 1980s. Some journalists and academics have cited selective evidence to claim that income mobility has declined in recent years.

(3) "The basic finding of this analysis," says the Treasury report, "is that relative income mobility is approximately the same in the last 10 years as it was in the previous decade."

-- Movin' On Up: A Treasury study refutes populist hokum about "income inequality." Opinion Journal, November 13, 2007
-> http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010855

In 1980, an American with a college degree earned about 30 percent more than an American who stopped education at high school. But, in recent years, a person with a college education earned roughly 70 percent more. Meanwhile, the premium for having a graduate degree increased from roughly 50 percent in 1980 to well over 100 percent today. The labor market is placing a greater emphasis on education, dispensing rapidly rising rewards to those who stay in school the longest.

-- Free Trade in the Dock By Duncan Currie | The American, Dec 28 2007
http://www.american.com/archive/2007/december-12-07/the-globalization-article
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(1) Rather than awarding increases in fixed pay, they are increasingly tying pay raises to employee performance

(2)The gap is widening between the raises awarded to top and bottom performers. Top-rated employees received an average raise of 5.6% in 2007 while the lowest-rated performers received only 1.8%

--> More Raises to Be Tied to Performance By Anjali Athavaley | Wall Street Journal, Dec 13, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119750458722025173.html

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Other reader comments on this article

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GuildY/ ZazonY wrote: "Alan Greenspan, March 2007"If we open up a significant window for skilled workers, that would suppress the... [MORE]	suppress TOP EARNER wages	Jan 30, 2008 12:57
Asking the Department of Labor to regulate the number of visas and green cards to issue is like asking a... [MORE]	No visa for you	Jan 15, 2008 02:30
GuildY/ ZazonY wrote: "Alan Greenspan, March 2007"If we open up a significant window for skilled workers, that would suppress the... [MORE]	Little empirical evidence!	Jan 8, 2008 17:57
Kathy Robertson: "When there are millions of Americans out of work due to outsourcing, why do we need to bring... [MORE]	Data	Jan 7, 2008 12:17
S. Kolger wrote: "every other type of white-collar jobs stop getting offshored to India" (1) New H-1Bs account for .07% of... [MORE]	Data	Jan 7, 2008 12:13
The people who are finding rising wages and full employment in the IT sector are definitely moving in different social... [MORE]	S. Kolger	Jan 5, 2008 09:46
Kim Berry (President, Programmers Guild) wrote: " ..." IEEE USA is IEEE's policy wing, supported mainly by annual assessment paid by... [MORE]	IEEE USA's Proposal	Jan 4, 2008 12:10
GuildY/ ZazonY wrote: "Alan Greenspan, March 2007"If we open up a significant window for skilled workers, that would suppress the...	Really!	Jan 4, 2008 12:04
H1-B petitions approved vs H1-B workers------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) From How many H-1B visa workers? Counts vary VALLEY EMPLOYERS AMONG TOP USERS By... [MORE]	Never Mind!	Jan 4, 2008 10:24
Kathy Robertson wrote: "When there are millions of Americans out of work" The unemployment rate in IT sector is a whopping... [MORE]	Just Do It!	Jan 4, 2008 10:10
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Kathy Robertson: "Companies are LYING about a shortage because they want to bring in cheap labor" A Dec 2005 Center for... [MORE]	Dis Information	Jan 3, 2008 18:23
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Bruce de la Vega wrote: "B. Lindsay Lowell and Harold Salzman at the Urban Institute that the USA is over-flowing... [MORE]	Caveat	Jan 3, 2008 10:06
Your article is well spiced because you hit the hammer on the nail.thanks [MORE]	moradeyo afeez	Jan 3, 2008 03:22
Background: U.S. STEM Workforce Shows No Sign of Impending Shortages http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB1505/index1.html "The pool of S&E-qualified secondary and postsecondary graduates is several times... [MORE]	Dana Rothrock	Jan 2, 2008 19:01
As "former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor", Ms. Furchtgott-Roth certainly knows that DOL is knowingly rubber-stamping labor... [MORE]	Kim Berry	Jan 2, 2008 16:21
"Allowing the Labor Department to adjust legal immigration every quarter to match U.S. need for foreign labor would help America... [MORE]	Bruce de la Vega	Jan 2, 2008 13:40
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I hate the arcane nature of bureacracy and public policy. However, because we need to protect our sovereignty and regulate... [MORE]	Ken	Jan 2, 2008 16:38
There is a principle of economics that, in a free market (which we do NOT have) there can be neither... [MORE]	Bruce de la Vega	Jan 2, 2008 18:05
This is fine as far as you have gone. However... Let's give the Department of Labor more lattitude. Perhaps they could... [MORE]	Rev. Stephen M. King	Jan 2, 2008 12:28
When there are millions of Americans out of work due to outsourcing, why do we need to bring in temporary... [MORE]	Kathy Robertson	Jan 2, 2008 09:16
If you listen to the CEO/CFO/HR people at the large companies looking to import workers a half way intelligent person... [MORE]	Gene	Jan 2, 2008 13:41
Instead of a well thought-out analysis of the issues, we get a rehash of all of the old arguments Big... [MORE]	S. Kolger	Jan 2, 2008 08:39
The writer of this article does not seem to be much of a believer in Democracy. She wants to take... [MORE]	Voter	Jan 2, 2008 07:22