(Preliminary Analysis) April 5, 2005
| MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
| $25,000.00 | $166,400.00 | $53,335.51 | $73,173.03 | ($19,837.52) | 30% | 70% | 29% | 11% | 5% | 1% | 8433 |
1. Approved Labor Condition Applications for H-1B computer workers in the state of New Jersey were on average for wages that were nearly $20,000 less than the actual prevailing wage.
2. The approved wages of 70% of H-1B workers were for wages below the 25% percentile of that for all workers. In other words, 75% of all N.J. workers in computer occupations were paid more than the wages approved for 70% of H-1B workers.
3. The approved wages for 89% of H-1B workers were lower than the prevailing wage in their occupation and geography.
4. Very few applications were for premium wages that one would expect for "highly skilled" workers. Applications for only 5% of workers were for wages at the 75% percentile for all workers.
| Occupation | MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
| Actuaries | $57,100.00 | $57,100.00 | $57,100.00 | $57,730.00 | ($630.00) | 0% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 0% | 0% | 1 |
| Computer and Information Scientists, Research | $53,040.00 | $109,000.00 | $83,256.67 | $81,895.00 | $1,361.67 | 33% | 67% | 50% | 50% | 50% | 50% | 6 |
| Computer Programmers | $25,000.00 | $166,400.00 | $51,330.63 | $72,274.38 | ($20,943.76) | 30% | 70% | 26% | 8% | 2% | 1% | 5951 |
| Computer Software Engineers, Applications | $30,000.00 | $120,640.00 | $60,951.97 | $76,376.35 | ($15,424.38) | 24% | 76% | 35% | 17% | 8% | 1% | 915 |
| Computer Support Specialists | $33,312.00 | $120,000.00 | $49,651.43 | $49,107.55 | $543.89 | 0% | 100% | 87% | 40% | 26% | 9% | 53 |
| Computer Systems Analysts | $30,700.00 | $114,400.00 | $52,730.48 | $77,300.88 | ($24,570.40) | 39% | 61% | 26% | 9% | 2% | 0% | 1267 |
| Database Administrators | $35,000.00 | $95,000.00 | $89,503.95 | $66,612.37 | $22,891.58 | 3% | 97% | 96% | 92% | 88% | 0% | 152 |
| Network and Computer Systems Administrators | $37,000.00 | $112,400.00 | $54,932.78 | $66,634.32 | ($11,701.54) | 19% | 81% | 44% | 20% | 14% | 4% | 81 |
| Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts | $59,660.00 | $92,000.00 | $76,486.66 | $65,666.00 | $10,820.66 | 0% | 100% | 100% | 80% | 40% | 0% | 5 |
| Operations Research Analysts | $51,460.00 | $53,000.00 | $52,230.00 | $68,060.00 | ($15,830.00) | 0% | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 2 |
| Occupation | MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
| Area | MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
| Atlantic-Cape May | $40,000 | $75,000 | $48,841 | $60,985 | ($12,144) | 0% | 100% | 26% | 11% | 6% | 0% | 35 |
| Bergen-Passaic | $25,000 | $120,640 | $56,833 | $64,467 | ($7,634) | 8% | 92% | 55% | 31% | 14% | 4% | 927 |
| Jersey City | $28,101 | $105,000 | $50,325 | $74,827 | ($24,502) | 39% | 61% | 9% | 4% | 1% | 0% | 711 |
| Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon | $27,000 | $125,000 | $51,812 | $76,853 | ($25,041) | 37% | 63% | 19% | 4% | 1% | 0% | 4142 |
| Monmouth-Ocean | $35,000 | $120,000 | $56,887 | $67,980 | ($11,092) | 15% | 85% | 53% | 21% | 9% | 2% | 427 |
| Newark | $28,900 | $166,400 | $56,320 | $73,640 | ($17,320) | 32% | 68% | 33% | 17% | 9% | 1% | 1481 |
| Trenton | $34,185 | $137,280 | $52,532 | $64,167 | ($11,635) | 15% | 85% | 53% | 10% | 4% | 1% | 710 |
| Area | MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
| Area | |||||||||||||
| Atlantic-Cape May | Occupation | MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
| Computer Programmers | $40,000.00 | $65,000.00 | $43,610.71 | $58,780.00 | ($15,169.29) | 0% | 100% | 9% | 9% | 0% | 0% | 22 | |
| Computer Software Engineers, Applications | $50,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $54,545.45 | $66,030.00 | ($11,484.55) | 0% | 100% | 45% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 11 | |
| Network and Computer Systems Administrators | $75,000.00 | $75,000.00 | $75,000.00 | $57,490.00 | $17,510.00 | 0% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 0% | 2 | |
| Bergen-Passaic | Occupation | MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
| Actuaries | $57,100.00 | $57,100.00 | $57,100.00 | $57,730.00 | ($630.00) | 0% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 0% | 0% | 1 | |
| Computer Programmers | $25,000.00 | $102,000.00 | $54,788.63 | $61,380.00 | ($6,591.37) | 7% | 93% | 57% | 35% | 12% | 6% | 574 | |
| Computer Software Engineers, Applications | $30,000.00 | $120,640.00 | $65,091.94 | $70,610.00 | ($5,518.06) | 15% | 85% | 64% | 32% | 24% | 4% | 141 | |
| Computer Support Specialists | $42,000.00 | $50,000.00 | $46,000.00 | $45,630.00 | $370.00 | 0% | 100% | 100% | 50% | 0% | 0% | 2 | |
| Computer Systems Analysts | $30,700.00 | $92,000.00 | $52,847.23 | $69,120.00 | ($16,272.77) | 4% | 96% | 35% | 13% | 4% | 0% | 179 | |
| Database Administrators | $64,000.00 | $94,180.00 | $92,742.86 | $68,040.00 | $24,702.86 | 0% | 100% | 100% | 95% | 95% | 0% | 21 | |
| Network and Computer Systems Administrators | $41,022.00 | $90,000.00 | $54,013.75 | $69,250.00 | ($15,236.25) | 63% | 38% | 38% | 25% | 13% | 0% | 8 | |
| Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts | $69,000.00 | $69,000.00 | $69,000.00 | $68,790.00 | $210.00 | 0% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 0% | 0% | 1 | |
| Jersey City | Occupation | MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
| Computer Programmers | $28,101.00 | $105,000.00 | $49,857.21 | $74,330.00 | ($24,472.79) | 38% | 62% | 7% | 3% | 0% | 0% | 604 | |
| Computer Software Engineers, Applications | $37,000.00 | $100,000.00 | $57,087.95 | $77,660.00 | ($20,572.05) | 53% | 48% | 35% | 13% | 3% | 0% | 40 | |
| Computer Support Specialists | $103,000.00 | $103,000.00 | $103,000.00 | $52,470.00 | $50,530.00 | 0% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 1 | |
| Computer Systems Analysts | $36,000.00 | $100,000.00 | $49,757.59 | $78,480.00 | ($28,722.41) | 40% | 60% | 10% | 6% | 2% | 0% | 63 | |
| Network and Computer Systems Administrators | $43,000.00 | $60,000.00 | $48,666.67 | $67,910.00 | ($19,243.33) | 0% | 100% | 33% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3 | |
| Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon | Occupation | MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
| Computer and Information Scientists, Research | $53,040.00 | $68,000.00 | $59,680.00 | $92,160.00 | ($32,480.00) | 67% | 33% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3 | |
| Computer Programmers | $27,000.00 | $125,000.00 | $50,663.59 | $75,560.00 | ($24,896.41) | 37% | 63% | 20% | 3% | 0% | 0% | 2966 | |
| Computer Software Engineers, Applications | $30,000.00 | $114,400.00 | $58,267.34 | $77,590.00 | ($19,322.66) | 23% | 77% | 18% | 10% | 6% | 1% | 452 | |
| Computer Support Specialists | $33,312.00 | $83,000.00 | $41,541.06 | $50,590.00 | ($9,048.94) | 0% | 100% | 81% | 19% | 6% | 3% | 31 | |
| Computer Systems Analysts | $33,634.00 | $95,000.00 | $52,760.23 | $83,930.00 | ($31,169.77) | 51% | 49% | 11% | 5% | 0% | 0% | 645 | |
| Database Administrators | $50,000.00 | $90,000.00 | $70,222.22 | $72,710.00 | ($2,487.78) | 0% | 100% | 78% | 67% | 11% | 0% | 9 | |
| Network and Computer Systems Administrators | $37,000.00 | $90,000.00 | $49,787.88 | $70,230.00 | ($20,442.12) | 15% | 85% | 24% | 9% | 3% | 0% | 33 | |
| Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts | $59,660.00 | $92,000.00 | $76,144.44 | $63,570.00 | $12,574.44 | 0% | 100% | 100% | 67% | 33% | 0% | 3 | |
| Monmouth-Ocean | Occupation | MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
| Computer and Information Scientists, Research | $105,000.00 | $109,000.00 | $106,833.33 | $71,630.00 | $35,203.33 | 0% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 3 | |
| Computer Programmers | $36,462.00 | $100,000.00 | $51,589.99 | $65,170.00 | ($13,580.01) | 4% | 96% | 51% | 11% | 2% | 0% | 255 | |
| Computer Software Engineers, Applications | $38,064.00 | $120,000.00 | $64,095.25 | $76,810.00 | ($12,714.75) | 43% | 57% | 42% | 25% | 12% | 1% | 99 | |
| Computer Support Specialists | $80,000.00 | $87,000.00 | $84,000.00 | $51,470.00 | $32,530.00 | 0% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 40% | 5 | |
| Computer Systems Analysts | $35,000.00 | $98,000.00 | $60,762.00 | $71,230.00 | ($10,468.00) | 8% | 92% | 61% | 47% | 3% | 0% | 36 | |
| Database Administrators | $85,000.00 | $85,000.00 | $85,000.00 | $59,830.00 | $25,170.00 | 0% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 0% | 11 | |
| Network and Computer Systems Administrators | $38,500.00 | $80,000.00 | $51,500.00 | $61,670.00 | ($10,170.00) | 28% | 72% | 67% | 6% | 6% | 0% | 18 | |
| Newark | Occupation | MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
| Computer Programmers | $28,900.00 | $166,400.00 | $52,476.88 | $73,830.00 | ($21,353.12) | 31% | 69% | 26% | 10% | 2% | 1% | 1031 | |
| Computer Software Engineers, Applications | $45,000.00 | $115,000.00 | $66,014.82 | $80,500.00 | ($14,485.18) | 21% | 79% | 44% | 26% | 3% | 0% | 91 | |
| Computer Support Specialists | $35,000.00 | $120,000.00 | $58,354.78 | $48,520.00 | $9,834.78 | 0% | 100% | 89% | 56% | 33% | 11% | 9 | |
| Computer Systems Analysts | $31,900.00 | $114,400.00 | $52,102.91 | $74,850.00 | ($22,747.09) | 58% | 42% | 26% | 8% | 3% | 0% | 227 | |
| Database Administrators | $35,000.00 | $95,000.00 | $90,900.90 | $66,520.00 | $24,380.90 | 4% | 96% | 96% | 93% | 91% | 0% | 111 | |
| Network and Computer Systems Administrators | $42,000.00 | $112,400.00 | $70,069.54 | $66,920.00 | $3,149.54 | 0% | 100% | 55% | 55% | 36% | 18% | 11 | |
| Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts | $85,000.00 | $85,000.00 | $85,000.00 | $68,830.00 | $16,170.00 | 0% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 0% | 1 | |
| Trenton | Occupation | MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
| Computer Programmers | $34,185.00 | $137,280.00 | $50,940.65 | $63,800.00 | ($12,859.35) | 18% | 82% | 42% | 7% | 3% | 0% | 499 | |
| Computer Software Engineers, Applications | $42,741.00 | $86,100.00 | $61,974.73 | $75,250.00 | ($13,275.27) | 19% | 81% | 59% | 10% | 0% | 0% | 81 | |
| Computer Support Specialists | $34,280.00 | $45,000.00 | $40,712.00 | $39,330.00 | $1,382.00 | 0% | 100% | 100% | 60% | 60% | 0% | 5 | |
| Computer Systems Analysts | $36,010.00 | $90,272.00 | $52,734.98 | $59,260.00 | ($6,525.02) | 1% | 99% | 95% | 17% | 7% | 2% | 117 | |
| Network and Computer Systems Administrators | $47,840.00 | $95,000.00 | $63,446.67 | $60,150.00 | $3,296.67 | 0% | 100% | 67% | 33% | 33% | 17% | 6 | |
| Operations Research Analysts | $51,460.00 | $53,000.00 | $52,230.00 | $68,060.00 | ($15,830.00) | 0% | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 2 | |
| Occupation | MIN Wage | MAX Wage | AVG Wage | OES Mean | H-1B Difference | Under 10_PCT | 10_PCT | 25_PCT | 50_PCT | 75_PCT | 90_PCT | Worker Count |
The goal of this effort was to create a scientific, reproducible study comparing wages in H-1B Labor Condition Application to the wages of workers overall. The comparison was intended to be as conservative as possible, giving H-1B wages every possible benefit of the doubt. Consequently, we believe this study understates the difference between the wages of H-1B workers and U.S. in N.J. workers overall.
Next to inaccurate and incomplete record keeping, the biggest problem in comparing H-1B wages to the population at large is that different agencies (e.g. the Bureaus of Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Census, and Labor Statistics) classify jobs different differently. In the USCIS's data, everything touching computers is a computer-related job, from senior managers to repairmen. The BLS only classifies people who would be considered a "programmer" of some type to be in a computer-related related occupation..
1. The data here started from the 2001 H-1B wage disclosure data for computer professionals in N.J from www.flcdatacenter.com and the 2001 OES data at www.bls.gov/OES. Note that this data is for Labor Certifications rather than actual H-1B visas issued. This is the characterization of the data from the www.flcdatacenter.com web site:
A one to one relationship does not exist between the number of workers certified by the Department of Labor (DOL) and the number of work visas issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). DOL Foreign Labor Certification data indicates an interest by U.S. employers to hire foreign workers; it does not provide direct evidence that these employers actually hired the workers. For example, DOL typically certifies over three times the number of foreign work requests than the number of H-1B visas issued by USCIS.
2. The data was loaded into a relational database.
3. From this, records for workers not actually working in New Jersey and unapproved records were eliminated.
4. The work location cities were then mapped to counties which were then mapped to BLS areas. Some records could not be mapped because they contained vague descriptions rather than an actual city as the application is supposed to require (e.g. "North and Central NJ"). Others contained obvious errors (e.g. "New York, NJ", "TOPEKA, NJ", and "TALAHASSEE, NJ"). [This should give you an idea of the quality of record keeping that goes on with the H-1B program.]
5. Job classification were mapped to BLS jobs by pattern matching followed by inspection of individual records.
Software engineers were easiest to identify are are certainly the most reliably-defined group. The one issue here is that the BLS divides software engineers into "applications" and "systems". Since it was impossible to determine from the disclosure data into which category a software engineer fell, they were all treated as "applications" since in the BLS wage data category is paid the lower of the two. This gives H-1B wages the best edge possible for comparison.
The major job classification issue was the job title "Programmer/Analyst". Is this a "programmer" or a "systems analyst"? After examining a number of "Programmer/Analysts" records that used OES as the wage source, all the records that could be matched to a specific prevailing wage value were found to be that of "Systems Analysts". It appears that employers consider "Programmer/Analyst" to be equivalent to the OES "Systems Analyst".
However, after the initial data queries were run, it was discovered that treating all "Programmer/Analysts" as "Systems Analysts" made H-1B wages worse relative to overall wages than having "Programmer/Analysts" be "Programmers". While we consider this to be the accurate treatment of the "Programmer/Analyst" category, sonsistent with our philosophy of giving H-1B every benefit of the doubt, the data was revised to treat "Programmer/Analysts" as "Programmers".
6. Records for occupations that USCIS classifies as computer-related but the BLS does not were ignored:
7. Record for occupations that were not computer-related were ignored (e.g. "Recruiter", "Marketing Manager", "Marketing Analyst").
8. Records containing obvious indecipherable errors that could not be mapped to BLS codes were ignored. (e.g. job title "SOFTWA", "Watson Wyatt Data Services Survey")
This left a number of records with job titles that could not possibly be mapped precisely without more information (e.g. "Genesis Team Member", "Oracle Consultant", ). The average salary for these records was over $65,000, substantially greater than the average of about $56,000 for all other records. So, to exclude them, would have a negative impact on H-1B salaries.
In order to conform to the policy of doing everything possible to make H-1B salaries look as good as possible, these records had to be included somehow. The choice had to be between "Programmer", "Software Engineer" and "Systems Analyst". Since within the OES data Programmer" has the lowest average salary in the group, these records were treatd as "Programmers" to give the lowest salary difference between H-1B workers and the OES average.
9. Wages were converted from Hourly, Weekly and Monthly to Annual.
10. The result were generated from SQL queries of the data.
This description only hints at the amount of errors that have to be corrected by hand. The amount of obvious errors in the raw data is staggering. A national comparison would be massive undertaking.
New Jersey has a large number of H-1B workers within a small geographic area. New Jersey has only seven OES regions while, for example, California has twenty-five making its districts on average 6 times larger in area. Using New Jersey for comparison greatly reduces geographic variations into the mix.