According ET, Is US President Donald Trump’s economic plan disastrous for India? The instant answer, more often than not, is a yes. It follows a predictable narrative. Trump and his people want to stamp out the H-1B visa programme, push Indians away, keep jobs for Americans. Therefore, brace for bad tidings. Obvious as this may appear, the assumption still needs to be taken beyond face value. To begin with, it’s not prudent to judge a new US president from a narrow IT perspective. And then, Indian IT prowess in the US doesn’t stand on such feeble legs that it can’t make a statement by itself.
Data bears that out. Indian IT bodies have been highlighting that the top seven Indian companies account for only 13% of the total new H-1B visas issued. This is a fraction of what big US companies like Google, Amazon or Microsoft corner. Which brings one to the issue of cost of labour.
Outsourcing isn’t about just cheap labour because an H-1B worker gets paid more than a ‘native’ US employee. A Brookings study in 2013 showed that an H-1B worker got paid $76,356 a year compared to $67,301a year by a US national with a bachelor’s degree of equivalence. Subsequent studies have shown that the entry of H-1B professionals has no adverse impact on unemployment rates in the US. So, the issue is about a certain quality of skilled labour that’s not easily available in the US. Which is why there’s a capping on numbers and wages for H-1B visa-holders. The Indian system is well armed with these facts. After all, this isn’t the first time that the H-1B case is to be laid out and differentiated from the job-loss campaign. Foreign secretary SJaishankar, in his recent address at the Gateway of India dialogue, also put out the official line when he drew adistinction between ‘offshoring’ and ‘outsourcing’ of US jobs.
Data bears that out. Indian IT bodies have been highlighting that the top seven Indian companies account for only 13% of the total new H-1B visas issued. This is a fraction of what big US companies like Google, Amazon or Microsoft corner. Which brings one to the issue of cost of labour.
Outsourcing isn’t about just cheap labour because an H-1B worker gets paid more than a ‘native’ US employee. A Brookings study in 2013 showed that an H-1B worker got paid $76,356 a year compared to $67,301a year by a US national with a bachelor’s degree of equivalence. Subsequent studies have shown that the entry of H-1B professionals has no adverse impact on unemployment rates in the US. So, the issue is about a certain quality of skilled labour that’s not easily available in the US. Which is why there’s a capping on numbers and wages for H-1B visa-holders. The Indian system is well armed with these facts. After all, this isn’t the first time that the H-1B case is to be laid out and differentiated from the job-loss campaign. Foreign secretary SJaishankar, in his recent address at the Gateway of India dialogue, also put out the official line when he drew adistinction between ‘offshoring’ and ‘outsourcing’ of US jobs.
No comments:
Post a Comment