8 Biggest H-1B Employers In 2015
The impact of H-1B workers on American tech jobs has been a hot-button issue, and now the controversial topic is a talking point in the current presidential race. So, now is a good time learn more about last year's 8 largest H-1B employers.
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The H-1B visa program has been a hotly debated issue for some time, fueled by concerns over job security for American tech workers and an attempt to balance it against corporate America's need for an adequate supply of IT workers -- even if it means hiring temporary workers from foreign countries. So, it's not surprising that the controversial topic has worked its way into the rhetoric during this year's highly charged presidential race.
"H-1B workers have never been discussed in the presidential election before. It's only been immigration issues," Ron Hira, associate professor of political science at Howard University, told InformationWeek. He said the topic has gotten attention during debates because this is the first time candidates have had active H-1B related bills during an election year.
Some of the discussion in the presidential campaign has arisen from legislation that candidates have introduced. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supports raising the limit on H-1B visas beyond its current 65,000 cap, while Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Bernie Sanders each proposed reform bills to tighten the H-1B program, a stance shared by Donald Trump, who has also outlined ways restrict H-1B visas.
With so much attention focused on H-1B workers this election year, it pays to know who the major H-1B employers are.
For the most part, the majority of the top eight H-1B employers are outsourcing companies that are heavily dependent on H-1B workers. In order to be classified as heavily dependent on H-1B workers, 15% or more of an employer's workforce must be comprised of H-1B workers, according to the US Department of Labor. Of the top eight employers, only Accenture and IBM, the second of which includes its wholly owned subsidiary IBM India Private, were considered non-H-1B dependent, according to Hira's research.
Each year the US government approves up to 65,000 H-1B visas, as well as up to 20,000 H-1B visas for applicants with a master's degree or higher, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). But demand for these coveted visas far outstrip the available caps. For example, of the combined 85,000 H-1B visas allowed under the two caps every year, a record 233,000 applications were submitted by employers in fiscal 2015, USCIS reported.
The top eight H-1B employers, as a group, scooped up a total of 49,539 H-1B visas out of the 85,000 available. That's 58% of the total number of visas available in 2015, according to data the USCIS provided to InformationWeek under the Freedom of Information Act.
[See: 7 Tech Jobs Hardest Hit by Layoffs in 2015.]
The data provided included a list of the top 10 H-1B employers, but because Cognizant Tech Solutions and Infosys each were listed twice, the figures for each of the two companies were combined, bringing the list down to eight companies.
In addition to the approved H-1B visas for each of the eight companies, other figures, drawn from Hira's research, are also included on each of the slides.
That data includes the most prevalent occupation, education level, and country of origin between 2005 and 2012. It also includes the share of H-1B workers sponsored for a green card in 2014, the share of these workers with advanced degrees from US universities for 2013, and the median wage in 2013. The data for IBM India Private was folded into Hira's research under IBM overall.
Here is a look at the top eight H-1B employers in 2015 in ascending order. Tell us in the comments below what you think of the current H-1B policy and whether or how it should be changed.
Approved Petitions: 2,500
*Top Occupations: System Analysis and Computer Programming 87.8%
*Median Wage: $71,510
*Education Level: Bachelor's 58%, Master's 7%
*Country of Origin: 87.3% India
*Share of H-1B Workers Sponsored for Green Cards: 11%
*Share of H-1B Workers with US University Advanced Degrees: 10%
IBM India is a wholly owned subsidiary of IBM. In June 2006, IBM announced it would triple its investment in India over three years, a country that at the time had 43,000 IBM employees and was the largest IBM operation outside of the US. By 2013, according to a New York Post report, IBM's workforce in India was larger than in the US.
In 2013 the Department of Justice hit IBM with an H-1B related fine and penalties. Big Blue was forced to pay a $44,400 civil penalties fine, revamp its hiring and recruiting policies, train human resource workers on complying with the Immigration and Nationality Act, and submit to two years of reporting requirements. The Department of Justice took action, citing IBM for favoring H-1B visa holders and foreign student visa holders over US software and apps developers.
*Data provided by Ron Hira, associate professor of political science at Howard University, reflects figures for all of IBM, including IBM India.
Approved Petitions: 2,657
Top Occupations: System Analysis and Computer Programming 79.9%
Median Wage: $65,437
Education Level: Bachelor's 65%, Master's 34%
Country of Origin: 99.4% India
Share of H-1B Workers Sponsored for Green Cards: 3%
Share of H-1B Workers with US University Advanced Degrees: 1%
Tech Mahindra, which is part of the India-based conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra, is the No. 5 India-based IT services offshore outsourcer, according to trade association Nasscom. In 2013, Tech Mahindra acquired Satyam, then the No. 4 India-based offshore outsourcer.
Approved Petitions: 2,776
Top Occupations: Systems Analysis and Computer Programming 86.8%
Median Wage: $67,350
Education Level: Bachelor's 57%, Master's 41%
Country of Origin: 99.4% India
Share of H-1B Workers Sponsored for Green Cards: 13%
Share of H-1B Workers with US University Advanced Degrees: 1%
HCL is the No. 4 India-based IT services offshore outsourcer, according to Nasscom. In addition to its core IT services, Hira said HCL has been more aggressive than its rivals in targeting higher-end work, including engineering outsourcing.
"It has been involved in replacing American workers at Xerox and most recently Disney. In gripping testimony, former Disney employee Leo Perrero recently told Congress how humiliating it was for him to train his H-1B replacement from HCL," Hira said.
Approved Petitions: 4,803
Top Occupations: System Analysis and Computer Programming 89.9%
Median Wage: $64,522
Education Level: Bachelor's 63%, Master's 35%
Country of Origin: 99.6% India
Share of H-1B Workers Sponsored for Green Cards: 0%
Share of H-1B Workers with US University Advanced Degrees: 1.3%
Wipro is the No. 3 India-based offshore outsourcing IT services provider, according to Nasscom. The company initially started out by selling vegetable oil and light bulbs, Hira said. But recently the company caught the attention of Sen. Dick Durbin when Abbott Laboratories outsourced some of its IT jobs to Wipro H-1B workers. The senator went so far as to send Abbott CEO Miles White a letter, asking him to cancel the layoffs, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Approved Petitions: 5,793
Top Occupations: System Analysis and Computer Programming 99.6%
Median Wage: $67,100
Education Level: Bachelor's 70%, Master's 30%
Country of Origin: 95.4% India
Share of H-1B Workers Sponsored for Green Cards: 1%
Share of H-1B Workers with US University Advanced Degrees: 0.3%
Accenture, one of the world's leading consulting firms, has its origins as the consulting arm of the defunct accounting giant Arthur Andresen. The company was an early mover into offshore outsourcing IT services, as well as business process outsourcing, Hira said.
In 2007, the company's headcount in India surpassed that of its US workforce. One of its executives served as the head of India's trade association NASSCOM. Despite its large reliance on IT professionals from India, Accenture has largely stayed beneath the radar in H-1B controversies, noted Hira.
Accenture (ACN) is publicly traded with a market cap of $67.9 billion and $31 billion revenue for fiscal 2015.
Approved Petitions: 6,339
Top Occupations: System Analysis and Computer Programming 98.2%
Median Wage: $65,600
Education Level: Bachelor's 79%, Master's 21%
Country of Origin: 99.7% India
Share of H-1B Workers Sponsored for Green Cards: 0%
Share of H-1B Workers with US University Advanced Degrees: 0.2%
Tata Consultancy Services is the No. 1 India-based offshore outsourcing IT services provider. It's part of India's largest conglomerate -- Tata -- Hira said. The outsourcing company has been embroiled in a number of H-1B controversies. Last year, for example, it was hit with a lawsuit that alleged it discriminated against Americans during the hiring process and favored H-1B workers.
Tata also came under investigation last year when the Labor Department examined whether the company was breaking immigration laws by allegedly hiring foreign workers with H-1B visas and using them to replace American workers at California utility company Southern California Edison, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Approved Petitions: 8,991
Top Occupations: System Analysis and Computer Programming 98.5%
Median Wage: $65,631
Education Level: Bachelor's 85%, Master's 15%
Country of Origin: 98.1% India
Share of H-1B Workers Sponsored for Green Cards: 16%
Share of H-1B Workers with US University Advanced Degrees: 0.5%
Infosys was made famous when its then CEO Nandan Nielkani inspired the phrase "The World Is Flat" to describe the new trend in the offshoring of white collar work during an interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. The phrase became the namesake of Friedman's bestselling book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. Infosys (INFY) is publicly traded with a market value of $39 billion and annual revenue of $8.8 billion.
Infosys, the No. 2 offshore outsourcing IT services provider, according to Nasscom, has been entrenched in a number of H-1B controversies, like those of Tata. In fact, Infosys was hit with a $34 million fine, the largest ever immigration-related one by the US Government, Hira said. "This fine still represented only a fractional percentage of its revenues and profits. The issue only came to light when whistle-blower Jay Palmer came forward.
Infosys has been involved in a number of cases of replacing American workers with H-1Bs, including Southern California Edison and Northeast Utilities," he said.
Approved Petitions: 15,680
Top Occupations: System Analysis and Computer Programming 100%
Median Wage: $61,131
Education Level: 79% Bachelor's, 21% Master's
Country of Origin: 99.6% India
Share of H-1B Workers Sponsored for Green Cards: 1%
Share of H-1B Workers with US University Advanced Degrees: 1.7%
Cognizant has been outperforming its competitors, many of which are on this list of top H-1B employers, Hira said. He added that most of Cognizant's workforce is in India, and that it has a sizable share of workers in the US, most of whom are foreign guest workers. The company's major customers are in the financial services industry, with Charlotte, N.C., serving as a financial hub. As a result, Cognizant opened an office in Charlotte and received $5 million in tax incentives for opening a location there. But the tax incentives raised questions over why North Carolina would offer such things to a company that has predominantly a large number of temporary, foreign workers.
Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) is publicly traded, with a market cap of $ 36.3 billion and annual revenue of $12.4 billion.
Approved Petitions: 15,680
Top Occupations: System Analysis and Computer Programming 100%
Median Wage: $61,131
Education Level: 79% Bachelor's, 21% Master's
Country of Origin: 99.6% India
Share of H-1B Workers Sponsored for Green Cards: 1%
Share of H-1B Workers with US University Advanced Degrees: 1.7%
Cognizant has been outperforming its competitors, many of which are on this list of top H-1B employers, Hira said. He added that most of Cognizant's workforce is in India, and that it has a sizable share of workers in the US, most of whom are foreign guest workers. The company's major customers are in the financial services industry, with Charlotte, N.C., serving as a financial hub. As a result, Cognizant opened an office in Charlotte and received $5 million in tax incentives for opening a location there. But the tax incentives raised questions over why North Carolina would offer such things to a company that has predominantly a large number of temporary, foreign workers.
Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) is publicly traded, with a market cap of $ 36.3 billion and annual revenue of $12.4 billion.
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