The article is mainly about the electronics sector. I am on an H1B visa and my pay is about 25% more than the average wage for my occupation and about 50% more than the prevailing wage. But then again, I'm a research scientist. I believe the large corporations do follow their standard hiring practices, at least the one I work for, but these guys from India probably never thought to make a counter offer for their proposed salaries. And they are probably right out of school so they would be offered wages with that experience level. That being said, there are some serious abuses in the electronics/software areas that are disgusting - both for the foreign worker and for the treatment of the American worker.
As I noted earlier, I think one of the unintended effects is locking certain professions at an essentially entry level compensation structure. That’s not uncommon in unskilled and skilled trades. Clearly it’s a disincentive to education and innovation, note my next comment. My impression is that those issues weren’t addressed by government in the creation of the H1B program, that many of the "shortages" result from an unwillingness by employees to revert to entry level compensation, and that the real incentive is largely cost savings.
Thank you for your candor. You sound like a very reasonable person.