Oh BS. You can get Americans. We end the H-1B visa tomorrow will go a long way in repairing the damage.
There are Americans who can code. But not every American who can code is willing to move where some of this jobs are. And it’s not just about money.
Corporations whine about having to pay a experienced coder $100k a year but think nothing of having layers of coffee drinking managers who do nothing but plan the next transfreak marketing campaign.
Let the bloody market determine pay rates. If they get high then more applicants will enter the field and the price will level. If they drop (because we import cheap and generally incompetent H-1B labor) then Americans will eschew the very arduous grind needed to become a professional software engineer and we will lose out on one of the few good paying job sectors left since we exported all of our manufacturing.
Six figures for entry level in DFW? That would be an aberration. Typically anything over $80k a year requires several years of experience.