A Scheme to Lower Engineers’ Wages: The (False) Case for Foreign Tech Workers
14th March 2015
Large American tech companies hire armies of lobbyists to convince politicians that there is a shortage of United States–based science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates, and hence companies need lower-wage foreign workers.
That is the lie.
A 2013 study by the Economic Policy Institute showed that American universities graduate 50 percent more students in computer, information science, and engineering each year than are hired in those fields. Of computer-science grads not entering the information-technology workforce, one-third say it is because such jobs are unavailable. Inflation-adjusted tech wages remain at 1990s levels. “The data strongly suggest that there is a robust supply of domestic workers available for the [information technology] industry,” concludes the Economic Policy Institute.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers projects that the starting wage for new computer-science graduates will drop 9 percent to $61,287 this year. Says the journal Science, “Ordinarily, rapidly falling salaries indicate a glut, not a shortage.”