The H-1B Divide: Tech vs Consulting

When Trump’s administration proposed the $100K visa fee, it was sold as a way to “protect American jobs.”

In reality, it did something entirely different: it protected Big Tech’s margins while obliterating the economics of consulting.

Here’s why:

• Tech companies like Meta, Apple, and Google generate millions in revenue per employee.
• Consulting firms like TCS, Deloitte, and Cognizant rely on volume — not efficiency.
• When both pay the same $100K per visa, that cost is a rounding error for Meta… and a death sentence for TCS.

The Efficiency Divide

The $100K fee exposes a truth the industry has quietly known for years:

Some companies scale with code. Others scale with people. Only one of those models survives when labor costs spike.

We’re watching the end of wage arbitrage, the foundation of the global IT outsourcing boom

What started as a policy change is fast becoming a Darwinian filter for efficiency.

The Macro Impact

• H-1B approvals will likely drop 40–60% in 2026.
• Consulting firms will push delivery offshore to India and Vietnam.
• Big Tech will quietly absorb costs and keep hiring top-tier global talent.
• The result: the gap between $47K and $2.5M per employee becomes permanent.