H-1B Visas, Offshoring, and the Wages of US Information Technology Workers

Abstract:     
We use new sources of micro-data to estimate the short-run impact that H-1B employment has had on IT wages. Our primary data source describes employers, demographics, and wages for a segment of the US IT workforce. We integrate these data with external datasets describing employers’ H-1B applications, available through Department of Labor databases, and offshore employment, measured through the self-reported employment of a large sample of offshore IT workers. Our estimates indicate that H-1B admissions at the current levels are associated with about a 5% drop in computer programmer and systems analyst wages.

Keywords: IT Workers, Globalization, H-1B Visas, Offshoring, Immigration, Job Displacement, Labor Shortage, Skills

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