I'll add that the threat of H1Bs have been used as a threatening tool to US employees by US companies.[0] Can't work longer hours for less pay? Reasonably expect your wages to increase with each year? Fine! We'll hire someone from outside.

And generally, when someone takes a criminally low level of pay for their high skill labor, all workers, domestic and international, suffer.

[0] This is the other side of the coin, career American engineers being fired and "forced"(for their severance) to train cheaper Replacements https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff... And Disney is just one example - tons of US companies "clean house" when they get frustrated at a high operating budget.

I hope such hardball tactics will set up those companies to fail at their digital transformation they are undertaking anyways.

All labor, skilled or not, local or not, deserve basic dignity and respect.

The reality sadly is some groups have to work much harder for much less and it is leveraged against not only them, but other groups too.

Seeing freelancer rates worldwide slowly creep up may be a significant of things to come. The cheaper labor is getting g more specialized and expensive.

> All labor, skilled or not, local or not, deserve basic dignity and respect.

I fully agree. I hope these rates increasing will help the talent in this entire industry price itself better.

It has been surprising me how much easier it has been to find remote talent solely on mutually being developers and starting with a foundation of respect (and clear specs). Communicating and working together well is needed especially for remote work.