Comment Re:A Solution Proposal (Score 1) 415
If H1Bs depress wages, I have not seen it in the developer field here in Houston. It costs $80/year in Houston to hire a C# or Java programmer at the 40th percentile, $90-100K to hire one in the 60th percentile, $130-150K to hire one in the 90th percentile (median is around $90K). Have you tried finding someone in 60th+ percentile, everyone is working, most of the people who interview these days are hacks, so there is a shortage. Wipro caliber people do not fill that shortage, and will not in the foreseeable feature.
Now, with those pay rates, you can see why businesses would want to reduce the shortage and lower pay rates, which are often way out of wack with the rest of the company's workforce. Unfortunately for them, anybody competent in India has already been snapped up, everybody not so competent has been set up, and even Wipro is trying to reposition themselves as a purveyor of quality rather than low cost, as they increasingly need to hire in the US to fill positions and their costs are rising. Salaries in India are rising, it will not be long (3-4 years) before the top 10% of developers in India make $40-$50K (from $20-25K now), you are already seeing many making over $30K. We saw the same thing in the Czech Republic, hourly rates for a Chemical or Mechanical engineer going from $12-$15 per hour to over $30 an hour within five years, as everybody recruited in the Czech Republic and the supply dried up.
Software Development is still a great career, if you are serious about it and work your way up in knowledge to the top half of the scale.
Now, with those pay rates, you can see why businesses would want to reduce the shortage and lower pay rates, which are often way out of wack with the rest of the company's workforce. Unfortunately for them, anybody competent in India has already been snapped up, everybody not so competent has been set up, and even Wipro is trying to reposition themselves as a purveyor of quality rather than low cost, as they increasingly need to hire in the US to fill positions and their costs are rising. Salaries in India are rising, it will not be long (3-4 years) before the top 10% of developers in India make $40-$50K (from $20-25K now), you are already seeing many making over $30K. We saw the same thing in the Czech Republic, hourly rates for a Chemical or Mechanical engineer going from $12-$15 per hour to over $30 an hour within five years, as everybody recruited in the Czech Republic and the supply dried up.
Software Development is still a great career, if you are serious about it and work your way up in knowledge to the top half of the scale.
