Open Secret

Recently there was a news item in Economic Times about a study which found out that Indian techies are paid less than their US counterparts when they go and work in US on a project. The whole thing was projected as if a startling discovery is being made, whereas the truth is that it has been happening since long time. In fact, the very reason that Indians are being prefered and handed over work because we are cheap and ready to slog out insane hours in a country where people hardly even put eight hours of work daily. In fact, some of the Indian IT companies built their entire empire on the very foundation of this salary difference (as is evident from the first few paragraphs of the news item).

How did US discover this advantage in the very first place? The US has been a favourite destination amongst Indian students. When these students finish their course, they find a job there itself instead of returning. Since the employer is hiring an alien (to US), it has to do more paperwork and hence spend more money. Over a period of time, the employers learnt that the craze amongst Indians to be in US is so high that they won’t mind coming in at a reduced salary. The ball started rolling with H-1B quota increase and then the whole outsourcing wave.

While it is a well-known truth that Indian techies are paid far less than their counterparts in US, and that too since last, I would say, 15 years, why there is brouhaha now? May be it is an excuse to foil the recent attempts to increase the H-1B visa quota for IT professionals. While it may be more palatable argument that the difference between the salaries has recently become glaring and unacceptable but saying that the difference is a recent trend is nothing but a pile of crap.

Wonder when will Indian IT companies start thinking about something different than just offering cheap labour?