Coaching Soccer: Job Americans Won’t Do?
Published on June 20th, 2016
No one would ever guess that there’s a shortage of American soccer coaches. Millions of American boys, girls and young adults play soccer at the high school, college and amateur level and are potentially prime coaching prospects.
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Hire Americans! |
But despite the abundance of American coaching candidates, Ashley’s Soccer Camp headquartered in New Jersey hired about a dozen foreign nationals, and brought them to Montclair on H-1B visas normally used to import so-called high-skilled immigrants.
The camp’s owners promised the coaches salaries that ranged from $18,000 to $55,000, but paid much less, in some cases, 50 percent less. The aggrieved coaches filed a Department of Labor complaint which DOL found valid. In an out-of-court settlement, Ashley Soccer Camp agreed to pay $175,000 in back pay and $10,000 in administrative fees.
In 2013, the Labor Department found that Ashley had abused the H-2B seasonal worker, unskilled labor visa which resulted in $8,281.20 in civil penalties for unspecified violations. Hiring Americans might have been cheaper for serial offender Ashley than importing overseas labor on nonimmigrant, employment-based visas.
Coincidentally, Congress is engaged in a heated debate about expanding the H-2B visa. Go to the CAPS Action Alert Page here to tell your representatives to defend American workers and to vote no on any H-2B visa increases.