Center for Immigration Studies Director of Research, Steven Camarota, used wage data provided by the American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, as evidence that there is no labor shortage in H-2B visa occupations, which were increased in the recently passed omnibus spending bill.
According to the ACS wages in most of the top occupations that use the H-2B visa to import foreign workers have been in decline from 2007-2014. There was a slight increase in wages for construction laborers but only the maid and housekeeping occupations showed a significant wage increase. Director Camarota writes that this shows that there is no labor shortage since wages would rise considerably as employers try to enlist new workers.
The labor shortage argument was used by the new Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), to support the provision in the omnibus spending bill that could quadruple the number of H-2B foreign workers in the U.S.
The omnibus bill provision allows any foreign worker who has received an H-2B visa in the last three years to be excluded from the 66,000 H-2B visa cap. This could raise the number of H-2B visa workers in the U.S. to around 264,000.
The H-2B visa was designed to bring in low-skilled, temporary and seasonal workers. This provision would increase the job competition for some of America’s most vulnerable families during a time when jobs are still hard to find for lower skilled jobs. Employers like to hire H-2B workers because their visa is tied to to the company, which prevents many from complaining or unionizing when mistreated. Recently Buzzfeed did an expose on the H-2B visa and how it replaces American workers and exploits foreign workers.
Read more on this story at CIS.org.
