Foreign workers on H-1B visas were receiving starting salaries about 10 percent lower than American workers at Deloitte, the multinational accounting firm whose pay data was hacked and made public.
The H-1B visa program, created by former President George H.W. Bush, helps companies deal with “labor shortages,” particularly in STEM occupations.
For years, Breitbart News has documented the mistreatment of American white-collar professionals as a result of the H-1B visa program. As Breitbart News highlights, Americans are often fired in the process and forced to train foreign replacements.
the study, published In the September issue of the Journal of Business Ethics, we reviewed hacked wage data from Deloitte to compare the starting salaries of foreign H-1B visa workers to U.S. workers.
The results showed that Deloitte paid foreign workers on H-1B visas about 10 percent less than American workers in the same jobs.
“We observe that starting salaries are approximately 10% lower for entry-level accountants with H-1B visas compared to U.S. national entry-level employees matched by office, position, and employment period,” the researchers found. .
In line with the cost reduction argument, we find that: Big 4 companies pay taxes and audits for H-1B visa holders, and starting salaries are lower than their U.S. national peers. There are several possible explanations other than the desire to save on labor costs that may drive this wage discount (differences in English communication skills, hefty filing fees for hiring H-1B workers, etc.) (e.g., any attempt to recover the Although it is not possible to determine the exact cause of this discrepancy, Our results are at least consistent with the pattern predicted by H-1B critics. Our secondary tests find no evidence that H-1B workers are substitutes for U.S. citizens in accounting, but rather some weak evidence of complementarity. This means that, controlling for office size and growth, offices that have recently hired H-1B visa holders on peer rolls will earn slightly higher salaries for new employees who are U.S. nationals. [Emphasis added]
The wage data supports accusations that the H-1B visa program is used by multiple industries to cut companies' labor costs, locking out American professionals from jobs they would otherwise fill.
About a year ago, laid-off American professionals (who say they were replaced with Indian H-1B visa workers) were hired by Indian outsourcing company Larsen & Toubro Infotech ( (LTI) obtained a $4.65 million settlement.
The first lawsuit filed by laid-off Americans said LTI deployed a “four-pronged policy” of anti-American discrimination to secure employment for Indian H-1B visa workers.
First, LTI petitions the federal lottery program to obtain a large number of H-1b visas and maintains an “inventory” of “visa-ready” workers from India to fill its positions. It is said thatand will prioritize hiring from this applicant pool over U.S. nationals and visa-ready individuals from outside South Asia (particularly India). [Emphasis added]
…
Second, LTI's internal and third-party recruiters in the United States disproportionately select South Asian and Indian applicants. Preference will be given to US residents over non-South Asian and non-Indian applicants residing in the US. Even if the applicant is less qualified. [Emphasis added]
Third, LTI promotes South Asians, Indians, and visa holders at a disproportionately high rate. Specifically, by giving these employees higher scores on quarterly and annual employee evaluations. [Emphasis added]
Fourth, and finally, LTI fires non-South Asians, non-Indians, and non-visa holders at disproportionately higher rates.Part of the reason is that these employees are often relegated to the “bench” and more projects are left unstaffed. [Emphasis added]
The most famous is the Department of Justice (DOJ). resolved The company has filed a lawsuit with Facebook over claims that the tech company gave preferential hiring to foreign H-1B visa workers and discriminated against qualified Americans in hiring.
Recently, Americans detailed to Bloomberg News how Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation discriminated against Americans using the H-1B visa program.
One such insider at Cognizant was Abiy Israel, who was hired to ensure that federal anti-discrimination laws were followed. What she discovered was shocking.
In 2018, an Israeli team produced an internal report that found significant racial disparities in Cognizant's “involuntary layoff” rates in the first eight months of this year. Black employees are 23 times more likely to be fired than Asians. [mostly Indian] workers, the data showed. For Hispanic or Latino employees, the rate was 16 times higher than for Asian employees. For white workers, it was eight times that amount. (Asian workers are overwhelmingly Indian; [H-1B and other] Visa according to the report. ) Israel told the jury this was some of the most extreme racial disparity he had ever seen. He also said that when he contacted his Cognizant recruiter about these findings, his boss told him to stop sharing the data beyond human resources leaders. [Emphasis added]
In December 2022, the Department of Justice announced a settlement with SecureUp Technologies. The company, whose Fortune 500 companies include Pfizer, Comcast, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, FedEx, and Nike, has been found to have discriminated against qualified Americans in hiring foreign H-1B visas. Because it became clear. Workers from India came to replace them.
Another infamous case involved the defunct biotech company Theranos, whose founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was convicted of fraud and conspiracy. Holmes, along with his partner and ex-boyfriend Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, claimed that Theranos' nanotechnology could take minute blood samples from patients and test them for a myriad of diseases. It had attracted billions of dollars in investment.
John Carreyrou's bombshell report alleges that Holmes and Balwani used the H-1B visa program to keep employees quiet and compliant even after the fraud scheme was uncovered.
“For the dozens of Indians employed by Theranos, the fear of being fired was more than just the fear of losing pay. Most were on H-1B visas and They were dependent on continued employment with the company in order to stay,'' Carreyrou reported in his book.
“It was like indentured servitude, with autocratic bosses like Sonny in control of their destinies,” Carreyrou reported. “In fact, Sunny had the master-slave mentality common to older generations of Indian businessmen. His employees were his minions.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
