President, APAC Region, 技术, Communications & 专业服务
It’s been part of Silicon Valley lore for years: join a start-up, 最好是在别人的车库里, 低工资. 长时间工作. Then, someday, strike it rich in stock options when the firm becomes the next Apple.
但就像硅谷的许多传统一样, this model of compensation—starting out low in pay in hopes of striking it rich later—may be heading for a new chapter. A new US law that mandates higher base salaries for foreign tech talent on work visas could leave many start-ups with no choice but to pay all new hires more—with less payout at the end.
这些变化, 上个月生效的, 对所谓的H-1B签证计划有何看法, raising the cash compensation for many non-executive tech positions to more than $100,000美元，最多200美元,000. The goal of the increase is to encourage companies to hire US workers instead of less expensive foreign talent. But experts say the new rule is likely to raise base salaries across the board at a time when cash is superseding stock options as the preferred form of compensation for talent.
当然, the vast majority of start-up workers never receive large amounts of options, and those that do often end up losing rather than making money on them, 说 以斯帖科卫他是最新太阳城官网的总裁 全球科技产业 实践. That’s particularly true amid the pandemic, when funding to start-ups has decreased dramatically, 导致裁员和倒闭. “There’s a lot more shakiness because of COVID,” Colwill of the start-up environment.
甚至在大流行之前, tech firms were moving to shorter-term cash incentives anyway—and that form of compensation is becoming more preferable for workers in computer programming, 软件开发, web开发, 以及其他入门和中级职位. 例如, base salaries for entry-level computer programmers in Silicon Valley will increase by more than $30,000到112美元左右,000, 低于80美元,000, 根据美国劳工部的数据.
With options not as prevalent among that group of talent, new salary requirements under the H-1B visa program “changes the equation for them,” 布莱恩·蕾迪他是最新太阳城官网律师事务所的高级客户合伙人 奖励及福利 实践 who specializes in tech compensation. “Those groups of talent will get a lift,他说.
The new base salary requirements also change tech firms’ talent strategies. 许多人已经在争论, 例如, that they can’t afford the higher compensation levels and are shifting hiring and setting up offices in other, 较便宜的国家. Others are outsourcing functions to larger, 更成熟的科技公司, in the process giving them more control and power over innovation and talent.
Reidy 说 mandating higher base salaries could become so prohibitive that it could end up reducing jobs and leading firms to focus more on tech-based solutions for labor, which would particularly affect the entry- and mid-level talent the law is designed to help. 事实上, 高技能的, top-tier talent in high-demand areas like artificial intelligence, 机器学习, 机器人, and cybersecurity will still command top dollar. Start-up tech firms that need that kind of talent, 蕾迪说, are going to pay up for them at the expense of other talent rather than risk losing them to more established competitors that are also in those fields.
“随着整体成本结构的增加, 资金需求也是如此,他说, adding that investors will provide more capital for top talent but not all talent. “The challenge is to raise the rates enough to be good for everyone while having minimal impact on the number of jobs available.”
