Here we go again. Another policy that lands hardest on the people least able to absorb it: entrepreneurs and small businesses. Last week, the President issued a proclamation requiring a $100,000 payment for each new H-1B visa petition. The intent is to protect American jobs. That’s a worthy goal, but if you subtract out politics and look at this from the ground level, the effect is devastating for smaller, fast-growing companies outside of major metro areas.
For Apple, Microsoft, or Google, $100,000 is peanuts. These companies already pay engineers $200,000 or $300,000 a year. Adding another $100,000 to bring on a skilled worker doesn’t move the needle for them. But if you’re running a small technology company in a city like Raleigh, Austin, Atlanta, or Denver, it’s a completely different story. The average salary for a software engineer in these places is closer to $130,000 to $150,000. Adding another $100,000 is like doubling the cost of an engineer. For a startup, that makes the H-1B untenable. It’s crippling. It’s the difference between hiring and not hiring.
