Earlier this year, the Economic Policy Institute released research proving that the United States’ temporary skilled visa scheme (H-1B) has been ruthlessly exploited by employers to undercut American wages.
The analysis was based on the Department of Labor’s Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, which constructs a distribution of wages for each occupation in a specific geographic location.
The OES survey sets four categories at 17th, 34th, 50th and 67th percentiles of pay for that location. Thus, if you are hired in the first category as a “Software Developers, Applications” in D.C., then the minimum pay or 17th percentile is $75, 000 while the median or 50% is $117,000.
