It's calculated of some predefined averages that are way lower than actual market rates. Most H1B's I know are making pretty much market rate or within 5-10% of market rate though. How do they find people to work for about half I have no clue.

What happened was HCL and Cognizant were going to provide IT consultant work for Disney, but the consultants were based somewhere else other than Disney that had a lower prevailing wage.

Sponsoring employers are supposed to report the working areas on the LCA applications, and the USCIS is cracking down hard on the tech consultant firms trying to exploit that loophole this year.

FTA "H-1B immigrants work for less than American tech workers, Professor Hira said at a hearing in March of the Senate Judiciary Committee, because of weaknesses in wage regulations. The savings have been 25 percent to 49 percent in recent cases, he told lawmakers."

It's for their job title; Disney is happy to pay 150% of an Associate Junior Technician's $30k average salary compared to 100% of a Senior Systems Administrator's $150k.

That's hyperbole, but it's the same idea.

More precisely even H1Bs are also required not to replace domestic workers, but somehow I must have missed seeing Disney execs being charged?

I believe it is based on the average for the country, which is much lower than the average in certain areas, like California.... But I may be wrong.

They hired contractors. Tata et al. are experts at this stuff.