A new survey from an IT staffing firm indicates that wages for IT workers have hit their highest levels since January 2001, with the average employee now taking in $31.30 per hour. This would seem to dispel the idea that increased use of foreign workers, both through offshoring and the H-1B program, has had a significant impact on the wages of US workers. The takeaway is that when times are good (as they are now and were then), workers are in high demand and can command high salaries. When times are bad, low wages prevail. This would seem pretty obvious, but it's not clear at the time. In 2003, people were blaming outsourcing for the poor wages offered to American tech workers. In 2003, however, the tech economy was still crawling out of a recession. In retrospect, it's easy to say that the weak economy was a far more robust explanation for the low wages than the fact that companies were offshoring their labor. As is always the case, these things go in cycles, so enjoy the boom now, but be prepared for things to take their inevitable turn.