The study by the Institute of Electrial and Electronics Engineers US said holders of H-1B visas, given to professionals in America and largely availed by Indian IT workers, are "taken advantage of" contrary to claims by US industry.

It cites an interview given by Vice President of Tata Consultancy Services Phiroz Vandrevala's to 'Business World' magazine in which he had said his company enjoys a competitive advantage because of its extensive use of foreign workers in the United States on H-1B and L-1 visas.

"Our wage per employee is 20-25 per cent lesser than US wage for a similar employee," Vandrevala said. "Typically, for a TCS employee with five years experience, the annual cost to the company is $60,000-70,000, while a local American employee might cost $80,000-100,000.

The President of the IEEE-USA, Ralph W. Wyndrum, Jr. has called for proposals now before Congress to raise the H-1B visa cap to be scrapped until significant workforce protections for US and H-1B employees are instituted.

"Not paying market wages to H-1B holders is unfair to both foreign and domestic high-tech workers. H-1B employees are being taken advantage of, and some U.S. workers' salaries are likely suppressed by the influx of thousands of additional job competitors.

"The wage problem is one symptom of how deeply flawed the H-1B program is," Wyndrum said.  Findings have shown that immigrant engineers with H-1B visas may be earning up to 23 per cent less on average than American engineers with similar jobs, according to documents filed with the US Department of Labour.

Salary data from Labor Condition Applications lends credence to arguments that lower compensation paid to H-1B workers suppresses the wages of other electronics professionals.

In spite of the requirement that H-1B workers be paid the prevailing wage, H-1B workers earn significantly less than their American counterparts. On average, applications for H-1B workers in computer occupations were for wages $13,000 less than Americans in the same occupation and state.

According to a Center for Immigration Studies Report of December 2005 applications for 47 per cent of H-1B computer programming workers were for wages below even the prevailing wage claimed by their employers.

The IEEE-USA cites a Government Accountability Office Report of September 2003 as saying that some (H-1B) employers said that they hired H-1B workers in part because these workers would often accept lower salaries than similarly qualified US workers; however, these employers said they never paid H-1B workers less than the required wage.

The Vice President of IEEE-USA Ron Hira, has argued that the concept of "prevailing wages" is worthless as a safeguard for US and H-1B workers.

"Proponents of the H-1B program say that by law H-1B workers must receive prevailing wages, but this is a legal facade so full of loopholes that it is frequently gamed by employers to pay below-market wages. This is another myth of the H-1B programme, that prevailing wages are the same as market wages," Hira said.