Immigration Attorneys: Their Moms Must Be Proud--UPDATED

Here's a UTube with a few cuts from 9 other UTubes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

In this, the immigration-law firm (Cohen & Grigsby) tells employers how to AVOID hiring U S citizens.

Money quote (no longer available online at the lawfirm's website--gee, I wonder why...)

[The quote from Part 9 is such a classic let me repeat it:] "Our goal is clearly NOT TO FIND a qualified and interested U.S. worker."

Things have changed since the 1960's, eh?

UPDATED:

Here are a few Cohen & Grigsby clients and their hiring salaries, courtesy of Norm Matloff:

(NB: 1) The right-hand column is the US Govt-determined 'prevailing wage.' the left-hand column shows the "hired at" wage. More on that below. 2) Matloff provides 70+ examples, we've shortened the list to show low- and high-end salaries.)

I looked at all the PERM (green card) applications filed in 2004 by Cohen & Grigsby for Software Engineer positions. (This is from a Dept.of Labor Web site, http://www.flcdatacenter.com/CasePerm.aspx Note that this is NOT the LCA data. The salaries here are guaranteed to be the actual salaries for specific workers.)

45000.00 42390.00 "Algor Inc."
45150.00 44762.00 "Bayer Corporate and Business Services LLC"
49504.00 44762.00 "Bayer Corporate and Business Services LLC"
60980.00 64189.00 "Hexware Technologies
60980.00 64189.00 "Marconi Communications

.....

78100.00 70242.00 "THE PNC FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP
78111.00 82222.00 "SolutionNET International Inc."
78114.00 54542.00 "SolutionNET International Inc."
78942.00 83096.00 "Global Knowlege Network Inc"
78945.00 83096.00 "PNC Financial Services"
82712.00 70242.00 "PNC Financial Services Group"
85000.00 71032.00 "Sonic Foundry
88000.00 67621.00 "Ansoft Corporation"
110000.00 70242.00 "Ansoft Corporation"

Of the 83 entries, 74 are less than the OES mean for 2004, $77,330, for SoftwareEngineers, Applications, and 79 are less in the case of Software Engineers, Systems Software. Remember, this is perfectly legal, butit certainly shows that these people are hired as cheap labor.

I sorted the data by salary in order to highlight the fact that there are a lot of DUPLICATE ODDBALL SALARIES--for different employers. In other words, you have several employers offering exactly the same salary, in fact, the same non-round-number salary.

How come? Well, prior to the law enacted in December 2004, employers were allowed to pay 5% below prevailing wage. And if you look at the prevailing wages, in the second column above, you will see that that $64,420 figure is exactly 5% below prevailing wage!

(My shortened list doesn't show this "5%" solution as clearly as does Matloff's. We also note that there are differences from Matloff's conclusion shown here. However, in the mid-range (rougly $65K-$75K) there are a multitude of examples where three or four employers (UBICS, People.com, Inc., Marconi, Ansoft, and ASE Edge) have the "5%" difference.)

Matloff observes:

What this data shows is a lack of a competitive market, with two interesting implications:

1. We have a bizarre situation in which "the tail is wagging the dog." The law firm is telling the employers how much to pay their workers! And it's telling them all to pay the same amount.

2. The Americans hired by these companies undoubtedy vary from each other in their salaries, because they can negotiate. In other words, you see that THE FOREIGN NATIONALS ARE IN NO POSITION TO NEGOTIATE. This shows yet another way in which the employers can get away with paying foreign workers less than Americans.

Here's why:

Though the press accounts have focused on the firm's comment in video 9 on how to avoid hiring Americans, video 12 is just as damning, as the law firm talked about how to get a prevailing wage that can be, in the Cohen & Grigsby attorney Jennifer Pack's own words, "$10,000 to $15,000" below the market.

So not only can the lawyers show US firms how NOT to hire US workers--by placing inconspicuous ads, running sham interviews, etc.--but in addition, the lawyers will show US firms how to "game the system" to reduce the DOL-determined "fair wage" for a position.

(Source: Norm Matloff Newsletter)