I’ve not worked at Microsoft so I can’t speak for them, but I’ve been in tech for the last 15 years with the last 5 being in manager/director roles at at least 1 company that is a household name.

What you’re saying gets repeated a lot, but I’ve never seen it to be true. Every single H1b employee I’ve seen comp for was comparable anyone else on the team at their same level. I just don’t believe that it’s happening on the scale that people make it out to be.

Also, I don’t want to get too into it unless people are interested, but at least at the companies I’ve been at, the way budgeting for new hires and the hiring process works, the people actually deciding who to hire aren’t really incentivized to do that anyway.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty wrong with these programs and I’m glad to see reform, but I don’t believe the underpaying thing is happening nearly as much as people claim it does.

>> paying them much less to do the same damn job.

where is this data coming from? Engineers frequently move between Amazon/Meta/Google/Microsoft, even on H1B.

MSFT has always been one of the higher paying tech companies out there: https://www.monster.com/career-advice/job-lists/highest-payi...

> paying them much less to do the same damn job.

That isnt true. A SWE engineer working at the same level at Redmond gets paid the same band irrespective of visa status.

> paying them much less to do the same damn job

Do you have any evidence to support this claim? It is not true. Tech companies such as Microsoft, Google, Meta etc. do not do this and they have no need to. They just need the top employees, and lots of them.

You want to know who does this? Companies like Disney and other IT type jobs who hire H-1B workers then lay off citizens and have those citizens train the immigrant workers. There is no reason for H-1B workers in IT departments. But there absolutely is a need for immigrant workers in high tech companies. How else do you ensure your employees are the best in the world?

> program itself is racist as hell

why is it racist to find workers willing to accept a lower wage to do the same quality work?

They'll just hire them from abroad and have them work remotely as contractors...

> this is the correct thing to do for a lot of reasons

The chances that this lasts for even a few months beyond the midterms is zero.

It's hard to believe the administration is for this for any sane reason. It's just payback for Microsoft hiring someone the government doesn't like.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/26/trump-microsoft-lis...

There's not a single reason to assume this administration is acting in good faith in any scenario. The correct way to look at all actions by this administration is to ask yourself, "how does this help trump?" Most of the time it is money (or staying in power => more money), as it almost certainly is here. He's looking for a payout for selectively targeting microsoft. That's it.

And when trump does something which clearly hurts himself, you have to remember that he is fantastically stupid, undisciplined, and insane.

Picking your least favorite companies and applying it to them only is not the right thing to do. Laws and regulations, when not applied equally, are weapons.

> The biggest one is the program itself is racist as hell.

Can you explain how its racist?

It's definitely not the correct thing to do. I don't see why you would start by making an example of a company like Microsoft where starting salary is six figures than a company like Infosys which employs a similar number (median salary at Microsoft for H1B workers is $177k vs. $93k for Infosys)

https://h1bgrader.com/compare/infosys-limited-vs-microsoft-c...

There's some real ways in which it's unfair. As a software engineer in Seattle I've quite possibly lost $100-300K to the H1B program over the past 10 years. It's not a problem though, I don't need anyone's protection from Microsoft.

I don't even really need protection from Infosys, but I do think that if Trump were serious about protecting me he would start with large companies where the median H1B salary is under six figures. Not making an example of a company that may objectively not even be a bad actor when you look at their salary ranges.

This is a lie.

I know people that work for FAANG as immigrants in the US, and I myself worked for one.

They made as much as anyone else there.

There are so many senior leaders that rose through the ranks at MS from India and the rest of Asia that the claim is simply laughable. They wouldn't tolerate being paid any less than American natives themselves nor would they tolerate their immigrant subordinates being paid less than natives.

> program itself is racist as hell. Microsoft is literally bringing in foreigners, paying them much less to do the same damn job

This is not racism, it is abuse of the visa system. It can happen to any race.

That’s liberalism not racism.

(In the economical sense, not in the political sense)

Not going to be evenly applied though, just another stick to hit with.

I sponsored an employee and that's not how pay works, in fact you have to tell them how much they are making and you have to pay them your average. The example given by the US government is a level one software developer makes on average 110k but your company pays on average 115k then you have to pay 115K and it has to be submitted to the government. So the answer to whether H-1B workers are paid less is: they are legally required not to be, but the system relies on employer attestation first and enforcement second. Companies get caught abusing this when the get audited but H-1B laws require they be paid the same.

More like MS forgot to pay into administration or family slush fund.

Every company is doing what Microsoft pioneered years ago. Yet only MS is facing the consequences.

Oracle. Apple. Any Fortune 500 company. They have the same playbook.

well you know what happens now right? they become remote contractors and get paid even less