Salesforce is currently the market leader in customer relationship applications and a leading cloud-based software provider. Tragically, similar to other once great American titans like Boeing and Intel, it’s executing an operating plan that is disinvesting in the very workforce that prioritized innovation, built it into a global powerhouse and enabled it to soar above its competition.
CEO Marc Benioff proudly dubs the company’s current chapter as the “Indian era,” but for Americans it’s nothing less than a betrayal as Salesforce’s U.S. workers are systematically being displaced by cheaper, more exploitable and ultimately less productive foreign ones.
Like other corporations that have followed an efficiency model rather than a productivity one, Salesforce’s customers will in time feel the pains of poor customer service and diminished added value.
While Salesforce celebrates India and an “exciting future,” in their press releases, SEC filings tell a starkly different story about the risks and potential repercussions. Connecting the dots brings to light a duplicitous strategy, where management claims one thing, does another, and hopes no one is watching.
The Offshoring Tsunami
Over the past four years, Salesforce has aggressively offshored jobs, exploited immigration loopholes, and redirected profits to build a foreign workforce—all while shedding thousands of U.S. employees.
From 2020 to 2024, Salesforce’s India workforce experienced a 420% increase expanding to over 13,000 workers. At the same time, the company slashed 8,000 jobs globally, including thousands in the U.S.
In January 2023, they “marketed “their layoffs as a “Restructuring Plan” designed to reduce operating costs. But if you’ve ever wondered why your neighbor’s kid who graduated from Stanford with a computer science degree can’t get a job and move out of the house, there’s your answer.
The Cost Calculation
The financial motivation behind offshoring jobs is pretty simple; the annual salary of a U.S. STEM worker averages $115,000 versus $25,000 to $30,000 for an India-based one. That’s a staggering 75% cost reduction and further supports our speculation that Salesforce is purely interested in maximizing their profits at the expense of U.S. workers.
Funding Foreign Economies with American Dollars
Currently 93% of Salesforce’s revenue comes from U.S. customers, so it’s a bitter irony to learn they’re rapidly dismantling their American workforce. In short, Salesforce is reaping the profits it earns stateside and investing them in India’s future. And that commitment to India is becoming increasingly more profound.
In the last few years, Salesforce has partnered with over 2,500 Indian colleges and through its online training platform Trailhead, has granted 65,000 internships and plans to expand that number to 200,000. They’ve also executed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) that make Salesforce courses required in dozens of educational institutions.
Visa Program Manipulation
Salesforce has also been asking for more H-1B workers and is suspected of gaming the PERM process, the system through which H-1B visa holders are sponsored for Green Cards – at the same time they continue to lay off Americans. Between August 2023 and July 2024, Salesforce filed 824 PERM applications and over 4,300 H-1B petitions.
These immigration programs, which are ostensibly designed to address a shortage of skilled workers, are being used to displace qualified Americans. And adding insult to injury, companies like Salesforce further entrench an exploitative model by bringing in foreign managers to oversee the offshore teams they’ve established.
Data Security Concerns
With Salesforce now anchoring many of their engineering and support functions in India, several critical security issues arise. Where is sensitive customer data being stored? Are offshore teams held to the same high standards as U.S. firms? How are personally identifiable information compliance regulations (PII) being ensured and what are the potential national security risks?
Call to Action
In 2024, America First Legal filed a federal civil rights complaint alleging Salesforce has been implementing hiring quotas based on race and gender and they’ve been tying executive pay incentives to their meeting discriminatory quotas.
These legal actions are a start, but there’s much more we as Americans can and must do. We can demand greater accountability by:
- Voting with our wallet and supporting companies that invest in American workers
- Raising awareness of corporate exploitation
- Advocating for policy reforms that protect American jobs
- Demanding transparency about data storage and handling
Salesforce’s “Indian era” and its focus on an efficiency model is not so much a business strategy as it is a betrayal of Americans and our values. By prioritizing profits over people, Salesforce is playing a dangerous game and charting a course that could lead them to the failed fates of Boeing and Intel.
The time for action is now and our standing together is much larger than protesting a single company’s business practices. It’s about fighting for the soul of American labor. So, speak up, share this story, and demand meaningful change.
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