Wage Data: Businesses Using H-2B Visa as Cheap, Foreign Labor Program

Businesses across the country are using the H-2B visa in order to import a foreign workforce that is much cheaper to employ than hiring American workers, new wage data reveals.

In an analysis conducted by Lifezette on the H-2B visa — the program that has allowed nearly half a million non-agricultural, blue-collar American jobs to be filled by imported foreign workers — shows the gap between what foreign workers are offered for U.S. jobs versus what Americans are paid to do the same work.

Overall, in eight of the 10 occupations where H-2B foreign workers are brought to the U.S., employers offered the foreign workers lower wages, further solidifying pro-American workers’ groups claims that foreign worker visa programs are used by businesses to import and outsource U.S. jobs to a cheaper, foreign workforce.

Lifezette‘s analysis of wage data found:

• H-2B foreign workers in landscaping were offered nearly 7.5 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in forest and conservation jobs were offered nearly 24 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in housekeeping jobs were offered nearly 6 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in recreation jobs were offered nearly 14 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in meat and fish cutting jobs were offered nearly 19 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in construction were offered more than 20 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in counter attending jobs were offered more than 6 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in labor and moving jobs were offered nearly 4 percent less pay

This latest research on the H-2B visa backs up analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which has shown how wages in the top 15 H-2B jobs in the U.S. have been stagnant or slightly decreased over the last decade, as Breitbart News reported.

The latest analysis of wages in blue-collar American job fields further debunks claims by the big business, agricultural and open borders lobby that a constant flow of imported foreign workers is necessary in order to avoid alleged labor shortages.

Immigration experts, though, have refuted this claim for decades, arguing that if labor shortages existed in American blue-collar job markets, wages across the U.S. would skyrocket due to the rising demand for workers.

For instance, since President Trump has implemented stricter immigration enforcement measures, wages for construction workers in Texas have risen, as Breitbart News reported.