I like some of your points, and H1B desperately needs a revamp. However, a direct unadjusted salary based auction is a non-starter for the following reasons:
- Non tech professions also hire people on H1Bs and don't pay as well as FAANG-likes do.
- Wages are generally lower in non bay area locations. Employers in low COL areas might lose out to those in high COL areas.
> Employees who voluntarily quit or are terminated are free to take any other job paying at least what the sponsor's job paid, provided they do so within 3 months.
3 months is generally not enough time to find a new job, finish immigration transfer formalities. This small duration to find a new job also leads to a lot of scams to maintain status.
That would increase the cost of business because it encourages people to move away from big cities and big companies no longer get to have a concentrated fishbowl of talents. They need to open more offices, or use more remote workers.
I personally like that world; but I doubt the companies would. They’d rather just pay more salary to balance out the high rents, so people keep swarming to its location.
> I like some of your points, and H1B desperately needs a revamp. However, a direct unadjusted salary based auction is a non-starter for the following reasons: <snip>
In both cases, the obvious response is that they need to pony up, lose out, or find a way forward that's not an H1B. This strikes me as an intended result of this approach, not some accidental side-effect.
> Wages are generally lower in non bay area locations. Employers in low COL areas might lose out to those in high COL areas.
Well what is the goal of immigration? Having more immigrants in high COL areas would maximize taxes paid by immigrants, which seems like one reasonable goal.
- Non tech professions also hire people on H1Bs and don't pay as well as FAANG-likes do.
- Wages are generally lower in non bay area locations. Employers in low COL areas might lose out to those in high COL areas.
> Employees who voluntarily quit or are terminated are free to take any other job paying at least what the sponsor's job paid, provided they do so within 3 months.
3 months is generally not enough time to find a new job, finish immigration transfer formalities. This small duration to find a new job also leads to a lot of scams to maintain status.