The $85,000 Engineer: Crisis or Competition?

Date: Sunday, December 29, 2002 2:27 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Sometimes it's good to review the past to see where the future may lead.

The $85,000 Engineer: Crisis or Competition?

Monday, March 2, 1998
San Francisco Chronicle

THE LEADERS of some of this nation's leading high-tech companies came off as
a bit haughty and unconvincing last week in asking Congress to lift the
limit on foreign workers they can hire.

They described the national shortage of highly skilled workers in dire
terms. Microsoft, for example, said it could not fill half of the 2,500
technical positions it had available last year. The Senate Judiciary
Committee heard similar tales of desperation from other big-name players,
including representatives of Sun Microsystems and Texas Instruments.

The competition for qualified talent is so severe that an engineer with a
doctorate from Stanford can expect to make $85,000 upon graduation,
testified T.J. Rodgers, president of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. of
Sunnyvale. One star graduate even got a new Ford Mustang as a signing bonus.

If this trend were to continue, they all warned, the United States could
lose its edge in a fast-growing industry that is helping drive economic
prosperity -- especially in the Bay Area.

To hear these Silicon Valley CEOs talk, a major source of their problem is
the U.S. limit of 65,000 foreigners a year on H-1B visas, a category
designed to address short- term needs in the domestic labor market. They are
pushing for a bill by Senator Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., to be introduced
this week, that would raise the ceiling by a yet-to-be-determined amount.

The possibility that this artificial ceiling could become an detriment to
the industry is worth exploring. But where the Silicon Valley executives
lose our sympathy is their near-contemptuous response to questions about
their claims or suggestions that a raising of the ceiling should be
accompanied by some ground rules. After all, this temporary worker
program -- which provides a six-year visa--is not limited to high-tech
workers. It also includes nurses, physical
therapists, attorneys, accountants, fashion models and other occupations. To
get rid of the ceiling altogether, as some of the executives had the
audacity to suggest to lawmakers, would open a huge immigration loophole.

The high-tech industry has been equally resistant to proposals that would
shorten the length of the temporary visas or a process to certify that they
first tried to hire American workers. Also, they have failed to provide hard
numbers to counter the arguments that part or even much of this shortfall
could be offset with a combination of retraining programs, luring engineers
out of early retirement or hiring foreigners through other immigration
categories.

These executives just seem to want a blank check as if it were their
inalienable right. Congress has a duty to be skeptical, and to also consider
the interests of the $85,000 engineers who have the good fortune to live in
our free-market society.

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