The Uncomfortable Truth About America's Largest H1B Sponsors

Every year, three companies dominate H1B visa filings: Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Infosys. Together, they've filed over 21,000 H1B petitions in 2026 alone.

But here's what most people don't know: their average salary is under $105,000 — nearly 40% below what tech giants pay for similar roles.

This isn't a story about hard-working immigrants. It's a story about a business model that exploits the H1B system.

The Numbers Don't Lie

The WITCH Companies: By the Data

What Tech Companies Pay for Same Roles

The Gap: For every dollar a Cognizant H1B worker earns, a Google H1B worker earns $1.78.

Why This Happens: The Outsourcing Business Model

1. How IT Outsourcing Works

Traditional tech companies hire H1B workers as permanent employees building products. Outsourcing firms hire them as billable resources serving clients.

The Math:

Client pays outsourcing firm: $100-150/hour

Firm pays H1B worker: ~$50/hour ($100K salary)

Firm keeps: 50-100% markup

2. The Wage Level Problem

The Department of Labor requires employers to pay H1B workers based on four wage levels:

What the data reveals: Outsourcing firms classify workers at lower wage levels, legally paying below-market rates.

3. The "Body Shop" Model

Critics call these firms "body shops" because they:

Recruit in bulk — often from their Indian offices

Train briefly — weeks, not years

Deploy to clients — often displacing existing staff

Pay minimally — at the lowest legal level

Bill maximally — $100K+ per worker in client fees

The Real-World Impact

For H1B Workers:

Salary suppression: Earning $100K in San Francisco or New Jersey means:

$3,500/month rent for a 1BR apartment

~$7,500/month take-home after taxes

Effectively poverty wages for the location

Career limitations:

Stuck at client sites with limited growth

Transferring companies is difficult (visa tied to employer)

Layoffs common when client contracts end

For American Workers:

Wage depression: When 28,000+ positions pay 40% below market, it drags down wages for everyone in the field.

Job displacement: Several high-profile cases have involved American workers training their H1B replacements before being laid off.

For the Tech Industry:

Talent distortion: Companies that pay fairly must compete with those gaming the system.

Reputation damage: Stories of H1B abuse fuel anti-immigration sentiment, harming legitimate uses of the program.

The Historical Pattern

The 70% Decline of Indian IT H1B Approvals

Regulatory scrutiny has dramatically impacted WITCH companies:

The shift: For the first time in 2025, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Google occupied all top four spots for new H1B approvals. Historically, this was dominated by Indian IT firms.

The Bloomberg Investigation

In 2025, Bloomberg revealed how outsourcing firms operate as "middlemen" for major corporations:

"Banks, telecoms, and retailers hire H-1B workers through Indian outsourcing firms to lower labor costs, creating a shadow workforce that depresses wages industry-wide."

Companies cited include major banks, insurance companies, and retailers using these arrangements to cut costs while technically not employing H1B workers directly.

What the Numbers Show by Role

Software Engineer: The Tale of Two Salaries

The $90,000 gap isn't because the work is different. Both roles require:

Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

3-5 years of experience

Proficiency in modern languages/frameworks

Problem-solving abilities

Data Scientist: Same Story

The Policy Response

The $100,000 Fee (2025)

The Trump administration imposed a $100,000 fee on new H1B applications, effective September 2025. This directly targets the outsourcing model:

For a company filing 10,000 H1Bs, that's $1 billion in fees

Tech giants filing 5,000 positions pay $500 million

This narrows the cost advantage of bulk H1B hiring

Wage-Weighted Lottery Proposal

A proposed shift from random lottery to salary-weighted selection would prioritize higher-paying positions. Under this system:

$200K positions: high selection probability

$100K positions: lower selection probability

This would devastate the outsourcing model.

What Should Change?

For H1B Workers:

Know your market value — Use tools like our salary calculator to see what you should earn

Consider alternatives — Tech companies pay 50-100% more for the same skills

Negotiate transfers — Once you have experience, move to higher-paying sponsors

For Policy Makers:

Enforce prevailing wage requirements — Current enforcement is minimal

Require wage level justification — Why is a 10-year veteran classified as "entry level"?

Implement salary minimums — Some propose $150K minimum for H1B positions

For the Industry:

Transparency — All H1B data should be easily accessible (that's why we built H1B Data Hub)

Accountability — Companies should report H1B salary distributions

Fair competition — Gaming wage levels harms everyone

The Bottom Line

Cognizant, TCS, and Infosys aren't breaking laws — they're exploiting loopholes. The H1B program was designed to bring exceptional talent to America at market wages. Instead, it's become a cost-arbitrage tool for outsourcing firms.

The 27,000+ H1B workers at these companies deserve better. The tech industry deserves a level playing field. And the H1B program deserves reform.

See the full company data: Explore Cognizant, TCS, and Infosys in our company directory.

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Investigation based on U.S. Department of Labor LCA filings (FY2020-2026), USCIS approval data, and public reporting. H1B Data Hub is committed to transparency in immigration data.