H-1Bs: How Do They Stack Up to US Born Workers?
Abstract
Combining unique individual level H-1B data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and data from the 2009 American Community Survey, we analyze earnings differences between H-1B visa holders and US born workers in STEM occupations. The data indicate that H-1Bs are younger and more skilled, as measured by education, than US born workers in the same occupations. We fail to find support for the notion that H-1Bs are paid less that observationally similar US born workers; in fact, they appear to have higher earnings in some key STEM occupations, including information technology.Download Info
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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 6259.Length: 33 pages
Date of creation: Dec 2011
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6259
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Related research
Keywords: temporary workers; H-1B; immigration; high-skill; STEM;Find related papers by JEL classification:
- J8 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards
- J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
- J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
- J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2012-01-25 (All new papers)
- NEP-LAB-2012-01-25 (Labour Economics)
- NEP-MIG-2012-01-25 (Economics of Human Migration)
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Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Aydemir, Abdurrahman, 2012. "Skill Based Immigrant Selection and Labor Market Outcomes by Visa Category," IZA Discussion Papers 6433, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
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