A Proposal for a Better H-1B Guest Worker Program

Immigration laws exist to serve national interests, one of which is the American workforce. Like any other commodity, sweat becomes cheaper as the supply increases. Thus, we regulate the number of foreign workers coming to the United States to keep domestic wages and working conditions from being depressed. 

The H-1B visa program enables employers to petition to bring highly skilled foreign workers to the U.S. when such workers cannot be found domestically. While employers praise the program as an irreplaceable boon to America, it even more benefits American employers by providing cheaper labor. Proponents argue that the H-1B program attracts skilled and energetic workers from abroad, which may be. However, their claim that the American workforce, due to alleged sloth and poor education, is no longer a reliable source of highly skilled employees is less convincing.

Before accepting the premise that American workers are a poor choice, one should consider how deeply employers are dipping into the domestic labor pool. Are they offering competitive wages to make their jobs appealing? Or are they relying on foreign workers to keep wages low? Although program advocates cite studies suggesting otherwise, believing that requires one to overlook the basic principles of supply and demand.

The purpose of this proposal, titled “H-1B Refreshed”, is to suggest that the interests of domestic employers and the nation’s pool of willing, trainable workers could be best served in another way.

In brief, unless specifically waived, every H-1B petition must be accompanied by a contract with a high school graduating senior. An outline of the details follows. 

H-1B Refreshed suggests that employers should identify and recruit intelligent, motivated high school students who cannot afford college or trade school and underwrite their further education. The student would enter into an initial contract with the employer to pursue a degree or certificate in an agreed-upon field of study, followed by a period of employment there.. 

Upon graduation, the student would work for the corporation for a period defined in that initial contract. This initial contract would be revisited annually and updated according to changes in employer or student needs. Upon graduation, the contract would be revisited to address the specifics of the job itself. Titles, wages, benefits, and relevant employment factors would be established, taking into account GPAs and other considerations. While contracts should be standardized for the educational portion of this program, the specifics of those elements will be addressed at a later stage. 

Should the student fail to meet the requirements of the initial contract to study (low GPA; dropped out of school, etc.) they become liable to the employer for the educational costs to that point. The debt would become a lien on future wages from other sources. Again, details will be worked out in the future. 

Should the employer break the initial contract, the student is free of any future obligation or responsibility to them. That is the bare bones of H-1B Refreshed. Now, what are the benefits and responsibilities of each party and the nation? 

The benefits to the student are self-evident:

• Hope and pride, and something to strive for as a high school senior, that is, life direction. 
• A higher education and the certainty of a career in a field of their choice. 
• No student loans to misspend or to repay or default. 
• Having qualified for the program, students must continue to keep their noses to the academic grindstone.

 Employers will: 

• Direct the education of their future employees, tailoring their course of studies to the employer’s specific needs. This will require establishing standard curricula and then tracking and evaluating the students’ progress. That will create a new administrative burden for the employer’s HR branch, however… 
  • That burden can be trimmed by developing boilerplate, “fill in the blanks” curricula, adaptable for specific needs. 
  • Tracking student progress can be as simple as reviewing semester transcripts to verify the student’s actual course direction, load, and GPA. 
  • An employer consortium, operating in conjunction with educational institutions, would develop, standardize, and streamline the process. 
• Provide the student with a mentor from the worksite and field in which he will work. That person will be a point of contact in the company for help and encouragement while he is in school and for the first year at work. (More on that below.) 
• Periodically bring the student into the worksite as an intern for OJT and to familiarize them with corporate culture and expectations.
• Receive tax breaks, credits, and incentives for the expenses of finding and educating their new employee. (These could be tailored to make the program attractive to smaller employers.) 
• Have bragging rights to a claim that they are putting America and Americans first (an important factor to the Trump administration.) 

This program will benefit the nation as well. 

• H-1B Refreshed should not be perceived as a way to eliminate skilled guest workers; they will always have a place in American industry. But guest workers should not be the primary source of skilled employees. 
• H-1B Refreshed should be seen as an investment in the American workforce and America itself. It will create a pool of educated domestic workers, many of whom will become loyal, long-term employees of their benefactors. That will benefit both employers and America at large. 
• It will keep in the domestic economy wages now being sent abroad.
• H-1B Refreshed will find highly talented and self-motivated students who would otherwise fall by the social wayside. Whether working below their capacity or becoming unemployed or even turning to crime, they will become a drag on society. H-1B Refreshed will offer hope, not only to the individual but to elements of society at large. 
• Since H-1B Refreshed selects from an educational pool of exceptional, high-performing, and motivated students, it can be expected that they will perform above average on the job. 
• It should drive American high schools back to teaching skills that lead to meaningful employment.
• It will demonstrate that corporate conscience does exist and that corporations look to the future of America as well as their own bottom line. 

Some miscellaneous and random thoughts:

• A near analogue to this proposal already exists in the form of our military academies. Furthermore, there are companies (particularly hospitals) across the country already doing similar things outside the H-1B envelope (e.g., the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers various programs to recruit, train, and retain healthcare workers).
• Employers may choose to self-organize a consortium of users of the program. That group could deal with administrative matters and create a common pool of candidates by working with . . . 
• . . . high school guidance counselors nationwide would identify self-motivated students performing beyond grade level and who are not able to afford higher education.
• Employers may wish to establish partnerships with colleges and universities to assist new participants in being accepted there.
• Once a candidate is located and signed up during the second semester of their junior high school year, a trained mentor from the company should stay in frequent contact with the student. They should offer guidance and encouragement during the entire employee development process. A model exists: Military recruiters are known to do that with enlistees taking delayed entry into service.

Since 1990, when it became law, employers have come to depend on H-1B as a primary source of educated workers — to qualify for an H1B visa, the worker must have a bachelor’s degree or higher. This sets a high bar for entry into even basic IT and STEM jobs for talented high school students of limited means. To cure that inequitable social ill, Congress should provide employers with the impetus and means to create a new source of skilled workers for the United States. H-1B Refreshed will do that.