What the proposed American Tech Workforce Act means for your American dream

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Poorvi Chothani

Managing Partner, LawQuest, Contributor Content

Poorvi Chothani is the founder and managing partner of LawQuest, a law firm specializing in employment and immigration. Poorvi, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, is on the Bar in India and the United States and is a registered and practicing attorney in England and Wales. He holds executive positions in the American Bar Association, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the International Bar Association.

The American Tech Workforce Act seeks to incentivize American companies to hire local workers. The bill proposes a minimum wage for the H-1B worker to be set at the highest of the annual wage last paid to an American worker who held the position or $ 110,000.

This could create an unsustainable burden on the US arms of Indian IT companies. But remember that all H-1B workers, even according to current regulations, must be paid the higher of the actual wage or the prevailing wage for workers with the same qualification in the same position. The bill, if passed, could generate a bidding war for eligible foreign citizens.

On the other hand, a system like the Canadian one that gives extra points for wage levels would be more objective in my opinion.

The bill also seeks to eliminate the optional hands-on training (OPT) program that allows certain foreign students to gain work experience.

A big draw to an expensive education in the United States is the ability to gain work experience of at least one year and up to 3 years for STEM students. Eliminating the OPT would hurt the revenue of US universities which attract thousands of overseas students as students will flock to countries like Canada that offer postgraduate options for gaining work experience with an option to move to more permanent status in the village.

The proposed limit of a one-year work permit when companies, personnel firms or third parties hold positions with end customers would be a major deterrent to Indian IT companies.

This is because the business model for many of them includes support staff and services at the customer’s site. If they have to pay for filing H-1B renewals every year, it could get prohibitive.

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