How tech giants beat H-1B visa cap: They call ’em students

With tech companies like Facebook paying its interns more than most American workers earn and average IT salaries climbing to more than $87,000 a year, it’s no surprise that the industry is looking for ways to cut labor costs. It’s been obvious for some time that foreign workers coming to the United States on H-1B visas are sometimes paid less than the prevailing wage. Though often denied, this tactic has been used by tech companies to lower their labor costs. But there are only so many of those H-1B visas to go around: 85,000 each year, to be exact.