•    When a company hires J1 student temporary or season employees, they do not have to pay the 7.5% FICA or Social Security tax on the wages.
  • If a company hires a seasonal American student, they have to pay the 7.5%. If the company hires a foreign student, they don’t.  This creates a perverse incentive for private equity firms, companies or corporations to hire foreign seasonal workers.  This is true, I checked it out.

[SOURCE – and IRS SOURCE – and Alternate Source]

  • Apparently, this is now the common approach within the hospitality industry to save money and increase profit from payrolls. Unfortunately, this approach puts young Americans at a disadvantage when seeking summer or short-term seasonal employment.
  • For fiscal Year 2025: The U.S. State Department processed 506,142 applications and successfully issued 451,803 J-1 visas.
  • Now, obviously there may be some regions or areas where there are not enough young people to fill the jobs.  However, if you do the math that 7.5% employer contribution saved is a lot of incentive for the corporation to avoid hiring seasonal American workers.
  • Additionally, this J1 entry allows the overall immigration system to be abused if the person doesn’t leave the USA at the conclusion of their employment.  How many illegal aliens are created by those who enter under a J1 visa and never leave?