Dawie wrote:Actually in the case of the UK (and I suspect some of the other major European countries) companies are far keener to hire foreign workers because they are generally better educated and harder working than local British workers, NOT because they are cheaper.
The "cheap worker" theory is a fallacy and is only relevant for low skilled workers. Foreign highly skilled workers command just as high if not higher salaries than their local counterparts because of the fact that they are harder working and highly educated.
Look at any job website: do you see a separate salary for British workers and foreign workers?
Above all companies value productive workers over cheap workers.
So true. This is one thing many people don't want to talk about. Ask the HSMPers on this forum, I'd bet the average salary (for those here at least two years) would be £30-40k, if not more. Of course it depends on the sector.
But for foreign workers being more hardworking - could there be another reason behind it? e.g. they do not know their rights and feel that they cannot say 'no' to their bosses for fear of losing their WP/HSMP/job? Many Brits know they don't have to do unpaid overtime or always listen to the boss. Might it be that? I feel it would be unfair to state that, by looking at a typical office, for example, the foreigners work harder, on average, than natives, without a greater assessment of things.
As for smiliar salaries - they may show the same rate initially, but haven't some people already written on this board about their experiences, where they were expecting more, only for their contracts to show less than what was initially promised? Again, what's the pulling power of the foreign worker vis-a-vis HR?!