U.S. global leadership, economic growth, and national security are powered by attracting the best talent from around the world. The H-1B visa program is an essential tool that helps employers of all sizes meet critical skills needs, allowing them to grow, increase productivity, create more opportunities, and raise wages for American workers.
H-1Bs complement U.S. workers
Decades of research show that high-skill immigration raises output and local wages without reducing domestic employment. Persistent labor shortages in computer, math, and engineering occupations underscore the demand for specialized skills.
- According to the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), “[a]n increase in the share of workers with an H-1B visa within an occupation, on average, reduces the unemployment rate in that occupation” and “leads to faster earnings growth for U.S. workers."
- In cities where companies experience more H-1B visa denials, jobs for Americans workers in computer-related industries decreases. In other words, more American jobs are lost when companies’ ability to hire foreign workers is restricted. By contrast, in the cities that receive more H-1B visa acceptances, more American jobs are created in computer-related industries, and wages for college-educated Americans grow, according to the George Mason University Mercatus Center.
H-1Bs lift wages and productivity
When businesses can hire the high-skill talent they need, they innovate faster and produce more—generating higher earnings for U.S. workers across all education levels through supply-chain growth and new business formation.
- From 2003 to 2021, the nominal median H‑1B wage grew 52%, while the nominal median for all U.S. workers grew just 39%. If H‑1B employers could just pay whatever they want—as opponents claim—these increases would not be happening, according to the Cato Institute.
- Studies show increases in the share of H-1B workers within an occupation on average reduces the unemployment rate in that occupation. Moreover, the presence of more H-1B visa holders leads to faster earnings growth for U.S. workers.
H-1Bs power innovation and startups
High-skilled visa holders are essential to R&D, startups, and growing companies. They enable employers—especially startups and scale-ups—to recruit specialized talent and accelerate new products, new firms, and higher wage job creation.
- Research has found that companies receiving more H-1B visas experience stronger financial performance, greater innovation output, and a higher likelihood of going public.
Making it harder to get H-1B visas is counterproductive
- Studies have shown that when multinational companies faced restriction in H-1B visa availability, such as the reduction in quota from 195,000 to 65,000 in 2004, and could not hire the high-skilled foreign workers they needed, the result was an increase in employment in their overseas locations, mainly Canada, China, and India.
- Research conducted by the Wharton School found that new restrictions on H-1B visas are likely to push jobs and investment out of the United States.
- Health-care workforce relies on foreign physicians because the United States faces a doctor shortage. Rural areas could be especially affected. H-1B visa holders make up the highest percentage of employed physicians in several rural states, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The big picture
Economic research consistently shows H-1B workers function as complements rather than substitutes for American workers.
- Retaining the best and brightest, many of whom trained in highly respected U.S. universities, will help America innovate and compete globally, and that leads to more growth and high paying jobs for all Americans.
- Instead of competing against one-another, high-skilled immigrant workers and their American counterparts often complement one another with their respective skill sets, resulting in greater synergy and innovation.
- By retaining the talent in the United States through the H-1B visa program, American companies are incentivized to keep their research and development in this country instead of moving operations abroad. This will keep American innovation and productivity on our own soil and will have positive downstream economic benefits to the local economies where the company hires U.S. workers.
