<p>Given all the hoopla over the struggling immigration bill and it’s provision to raise H1B limits, I though people would find this interesting.
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<p>Bill Gates and his cohorts argue for weakening restrictions and raising limits because there’s just not enough qualified workers to hire. And yet the firms hiring H1B workers run ads with very peculiar and strict requirements. Well, this video explains why. If you have a checklist and can show that the American workers don’t match each and every item, out goes their resume.</p>
<p>Here’s 2 particularly relevant quotes directly from the law-firm seminar, in case you had any doubt what labor law firms coach employers to do:</p>
<p>“Keeping in mind our goal. And our goal is clearly NOT to find a qualified and interested US worker.” time 1:34</p>
<p>*“If somebody’s looking like they’re very qualified we ask them to have the manager of that specific position step in and go over the qualifications with them. If necessary schedule an interview, go thru the whole process to find a legal basis to disqualify them.” * time 3:51</p>
<p>Actually I find it very hard to hire qualified American workers for certain slots. I’m really not interested in hiring illegals – but just <em>try</em> to hire someone legal to take care of pets in the shop for $10/hr, 5 hrs a day, 6 days a week. </p>
<p>Honesty, reliability, and a good work ethic are the important qualities, along with the willingness to clean up after the birds, the bunnies and the bugs – plus the reptiles. No puppies, no kittens to worry about. It really helps if they can read and write English – although with computer translators I can deal with Spanish speakers. </p>
<p>Right now I am packaging the animal care function with the assistant manager function – but it doesn’t make the assistant manager types very happy to come in and do animal care every morning, even if we spin it as the most important job in the store!</p>
<p>“…for $10/hr…” well - there you have it. If you want to hire Americans you have to pay more for unpleasant jobs than you can get away with paying non-citizens. That’s actually the whole point. That’s why corporations hire law firms for advice on how to evade the intent of the law legally by complying with its specific provisions while at the same time frustrating its purpose. It’s done with regard to tax law all the time. Why are you surprised? Big corporations do that in order to maximize profit. It’s legal. That’s why they hire lawyers to teach them how to do it, just like they hire lawyers and accountants to teach them how to minimize their taxes, legally.</p>
<p>In my area, landscaping, fast food restaurants, Dairy Queens and anything else that is available gets HS and college students, or high school grads or drop-outs. Happens when the main sources of jobs get shipped to Mexico, and competition gets tight for any jobs. </p>
<p>Your job with pets would be highly sought after, and $10/hour would be considered great.</p>
<p>It’s not a bad job … especially for someone who can get up in the morning, work independently, and enjoys the animals. We really do think it’s the most important job in the shop. </p>
<p>When I bought the shop, the previous owner said to me that the only people that would work retail in our area have “issues” and as an employer, I would need to figure out what their issues are and if I could work with the issues in question. “Issues” covers a lot of ground – from recovering (or not) drug addicts, thieves, alcoholics, crazies, brain-deads, all the way to “need very flex hours” and “only high school diploma” and “need to work close to home” and “have to leave at 3 to meet the school bus.” </p>
<p>There’s a lot of issues that I cannot work with – the ones that revolve around reliablity and/or substance abuse primarily – but I do pretty well with people who need some flexibility in their schedule but can be generally reliable.</p>
<p>I do have to say though … that some of those Spanish speaking workers can be the most reliable and thorough workers available … and when I’m paying 25% more than the grocery checker jobs and 10% more than Starbucks it’s hard to say that it’s too low.</p>
<p>So what I never understand is why those I-9 forms seem so important to some of us employers and others must just not bother. Why is it SO easy for employers to just ignore those pesky little requirements such copies of documents? Do the I-9s get filled out, just with forged or “pretend” documents, or are they just never on file?</p>