National Foundation for American Policy refutes Trump’s claims of lower salaries of H1-B visa workers

A Washington-based not-for-profit think tank National Foundation for American Policy has raised questions in its report over the claims of the US President Donald Trump that more than 80% of the H1-B visa workers in the US are paid lower salaries while compared with the average salary in their industry. The report has said that the statistics provided by Trump are misleading as they are based on the database provided by the Department of Labor which includes several different applications of the same individuals. This is owing to the fact that a new filing is normally required when H1-B professional shifts from one area to another, explained the report. The result is that the Department of Labor counts one individual twice or even thrice who is employed in more than single geographical location as younger workers are usually sent to multiple locations. On the other hand, the salary would also not reflect the actual payment made to the workers and gives details of only the minimum figure that is required for filing report with the government authorities, added the report. The report also revealed that the average salary of an H1-B visa worker in the IT sector for 2015 who had worked for around there years was 7000 dollars higher than the average industry salary for workers, as quoted by the Times of India. It has been further elaborated in the report that H1-B visas are important for the US they are the only sensible pathway through which an overseas highly skilled worker or an overseas student who has studied in the US can work for a longer duration of time in the nation. The universities in the US have in electrical engineering stream almost 77% of the full-time graduate students from overseas and 71% of the students in Computer Sciences from overseas. The former head of policy at the Immigration and Naturalization Service under President George W Bush and currently the Executive Director of National Foundation for American Policy Stuart Anderson has said that in the existing global economy, highly skilled workers and firms have diverse options. If the US intends to remain as one among these options, it must remain open towards highly skilled overseas immigrants, added Anderson.