The amount is too low for Americans to be able to accept the positions. Also, the H1B visa program is putting Americans out of work.
It is not hard to show that the assigned salary corresponds if you have put most of the people out of work and so driven down wages by foreign H1B recipients foreign workers.
The salary itself IS set by the employer using the guidelines established in the program. The guidelines on salaries are too low, that is the point.
I feel like you are parsing in an attempt to avoid the issue. Am I incorrect in that?
The net wage cost to the employer is the same as it is for Americans. The H1B holder nets out with less money because of the fees the employer must pay to the government on their behalf. The entity that makes money off H1B visas is the US Government.
Also, the H1B visa program is putting Americans out of work.
It is doing no such thing. We currently have a shortage of engineers in this country.
The salary itself IS set by the employer . . .
So the employer - not the government - sets the salary.
. . . using the guidelines established in the program.
The guidelines are that the employer pay the same as they would for anyone else in that position - a salary also set by the employer.
It is a myth that employers are laying off American workers and replacing them with H1B visa holders in order to save money. Any employer doing so is extremely short-sighted. I can assure you that the cost in the long run for doing so would be much higher.