This new breed of technology firms shell out more to H-1B employees than Google and Apple, which pay $144,285 and $139,457 respectively.
H-1Bs are long-term work visas and many of the recipients are Indians.
Vijay Govindarajan, Coxe distinguished professor at Tuck at Dartmouth, said there is a very important factor that masks average compensation levels across tech firms and that is each company’s unique talent acquisition and compensation strategy. “For instance, Netflix only recruits and retains rock stars and pays them top-of-the-market compensation, more than what anyone else would pay. Netflix’s logic is that the best programmers are 100 times better than average programmers.”
Govindarajan said Netflix’s average compensation per employee (not just those on H-1B visas but across all employees) is higher than for other tech companies. “For the same token, the return on each rock star will be huge for Netflix; in fact, in 2020, each Netflix employee generated an average of $2.6 million in revenue and $26.5 million in shareholder value, more than most other companies in entertainment,” he said.
Larger tech companies recruit H-1B talent to perform diverse types of tasks, including a few with specialised skills that command premium salaries. “Therefore, average compensation per employee on H-1B visas in large tech firms tend to be lower as compared to a similar figure for smaller tech firms,” Govindarajan said.
Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of Immigration Law Practice in Cornell Law School, said all H-1B employers must pay the higher of either the prevailing wage for that job in that geographical area, or the actual wage paid to other similarly situated workers in the company. “The prevailing wage varies, depending on the geographical location and the precise delineation of the job (eg, level 1 computer systems analyst versus level 1 computer systems analyst). The actual wage also varies, depending on the company. For example, Netflix generally pays its technology workers more than other tech companies. The overall system isn’t perfect, but it isn’t supposed to depress wages for similarly employed US workers.”
Outgoing US president Donald Trump had made H-1B rules more and more stringent as part of his efforts to discourage immigration. Many in India hope president-elect Joe Biden will roll back some of these measures. Biden has supported the expansion of the number of high-skilled visas, and the elimination of limits on employment-based visas by country.
