Rama Krishna Sangem
India’s leading tech manpower expert Mohandas Pai, chairman of Aarin Capital, has said that the popular narrative of Indian tech workers being “cheap labour” taking away American jobs is unfounded, as most Indian companies already pay high salaries to employees on H‑1B visas. Speaking on Bharatvaarta’s podcast, Pai criticised US President Donald Trump’s decision to increase the H‑1B application fee to $100,000, calling the move unlikely to have any major impact in the short term.
Let me state the facts. What has President Trump done? He has increased the fee payable on the H‑1B application to $100,000. It applies for the next year, not this year,” Pai said. “There’ll be a lottery. It is only for the next year when application probably starts by 1st October. The lottery and others may happen by April. So, it doesn’t apply for the next 12 months.”
He noted that there is a large “stock” of existing H‑1B holders who are unaffected. “Now there is a stock of existing H‑1Bs of 300,000 or so and 235,000 are Indian — 70%. So they will continue under the old norms, they can renew every three years for up to nine years or 12 years or file green card. And there is no increase in cost for them. The increase in cost is only for the next year. So next 6–12 months no impact,” he explained.
Pai pointed out that Indian companies already pay substantial salaries for H‑1B workers. “Last year, there were 85,000 visas given. 65,000 went to Indian companies. And the Indian companies paid a minimum of $100,000 as salaries. It is not cheap. $100,000 plus travel up and down, plus social security, plus medical insurance, it could come to $120,000. They charge the clients $150–$200,000. So it’s not cheap. All this narrative of saying cheap labor coming, taking jobs doesn’t apply,” he said.
He added that any significant restriction risks driving high-value work offshore. “It’ll drive away critical work from the United States into India or offshore all around the world because most American companies will increase the GCC contribution. GCCs have grown tremendously driven by lack of talent in America,” he said.
Pai warned that the real danger was not the fee hike itself but the “hostile environment” created by rhetoric against Indian workers. “We don’t want terrorists attacking Indians or some guys going and shooting off against Indians… abusing them, racial taunting. We don’t want that kind of hatred happening,” he said. “Indians have been very successful…very law-abiding people doing very well. So you don’t want to create an enemy out of India.”
