Summary
Tesla replaced many laid-off U.S. workers with foreign H-1B visa holders after a 2024 wave of layoffs affecting 15,000 employees.
These visas, tied to employer sponsorship, often lower compensation and give employers significant leverage over workers.
Critics argue this displaces U.S. employees, as senior engineers were replaced by lower-paid junior engineers.
CEO Elon Musk, while advocating for expanding H-1B visa caps, faces backlash, especially from conservatives, for “job-stealing” concerns.
Musk contends there’s a U.S. skill shortage, but critics highlight potential exploitation tied to Tesla’s demanding work culture and visa dependence.
You can easily make H1B work 80 hours a week, as they know the moment they are fired they’ll have to return to their home country.
Also while other professions might indeed have higher salaries under H1B, Software Engineering salary is way under the average.
At my first job it if college, we had one QA guy at a small company. He did everything. He worked 12+ hours a day and weekends to support a team of ~8 devs iirc.
He was an H-1B. He didn’t have a choice but to work his butt off and do anything they asked.
At one point while I was there, they honored him at some company party, thanking him for his hard work over the last 2 years. The gift was a $100 restaurant gift card.
And management had the nerve to be “shocked” when he quit immediately after getting his green card.
Double the hours, half the price.