A new report by an immigration research group says that foreign-born workers in the computer industry make an average $13,000 less than Americans in the same occupation and state.

However, as Congress gears up to debate immigration policy, some questioned the numbers in the report released by the Center for Immigration Studies. The center supports reducing immigration, and some industry groups are calling for increasing the currently allowed limit of 65,000 regular H-1B visas.

The visa program allows U.S. employers to hire professional-level foreign workers for up to six years. Employers are required to pay the higher of the same rate as other employees with similar qualifications or the "prevailing wage" for the occupation and location.

Laura Reiff, co-chairwoman of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, said it would make no sense for employers to risk sanctions by the U.S. Department of Labor and pay roughly $3,000 in the application process just to get cheap employees.

"The reason why (employers) are reaching out to foreign nationals is not for cheap labor but because they cannot find the talent here," Reiff said. "It would be silly to go through all the expense and headache and filing and agitations to try to undercut the U.S. workforce."

However, the CIS report found that 85 percent of H-1B visa holders in the computer industry earned less than the median wage for the occupation and state. In Utah, H-1B visa holders earned an average $7,378 less than the median wage, the report found.

Department of Labor spokesman David James said in a statement that the federal agency does not comment on third-party studies. The agency did not respond to a request for general labor information.

John Miano, the CIS report's author, said employers are setting their own prevailing wages and in many cases are using the wage scale for entry-level workers.

"The numbers show this isn't the world's best and the brightest, it's pretty much the world's cheapest," Miano said. "Highly skilled people should make a lot more money than the average."

The CIS report did not count actual visa holders' salaries because that information isn't available, Miano said. Instead, it measured the requests for such visas by employers, some of which were denied.

Miano suggested that Congress should keep the visa quota intact and require employers to use a prevailing wage set by the federal government.

While Miano's study looked strictly at H-1B visa holders in the computer industry, some other recent studies have pointed to a smaller wage gap.

A Northeastern University study of 1999 wages for degree holders from American institutions found salaries of U.S.-born and foreign-born workers similar in most fields — and identical in a few, including computer and math science masters degree holders.

Foreign-born men from countries outside of Mexico and Central America earned 10 percent less than U.S.-born workers when their salaries were adjusted for educational attainment and experience, according to a recent Congressional Budget Office report. The report found a smaller disparity of 3 percent for foreign-born women.

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com