How many people that have studied for years to become experts at niche applications are being paid only $60,000 a year - the current minimum for H1B Visas? I would think that getting such an expert is well worth $130,000 a year.
Consider someone who has just finished their PhD in a relevant area. You want to employ them in your startup in e.g. Orlando, where the cost of living is much lower than SF. Maybe 80k is reasonable. But you'll have to pay a 50k premium.
Or you could set up an office in Montreal. And then your tech team will come to Florida for a 3 month code camp every December anyway...
If they're hiring fresh grads, it should be an American. There's plenty of them.
Why? The H1B is supposed to bring in high skilled labor not new grads. If 80K is the going market rate for someone with those skills then you will be able to find someone to do the job for 80K. Artificially suppressing wages is the reason you can't find anyone to do the job for the "reasonable" rate.
A pay spike will draw more people in to the field and allow wages to find their natural level.
There is no guarantee you will be able to find an American with those skills, even for $129k. If there is a long term need, and the industry doesn't move somewhere cheaper, eventually there will be more applicants. I've yet to meet any company who says 'no problem, we'll just delay that project until we can find someone'.
You could have a payroll tax on H1Bs, say 25%, that goes toward funding STEM PhD stipends, and peg their minimum salaries to be greater than the median of comparable American salaries. Though that may create a perverse incentive for companies to pay locals a lot LESS so as to reduce the overall salary bill. Needs some expert modelling...
Then they'll have no problem to get a 130k jobs.
Looks like a good thing. Companies won't be able to pretend that they are fresh inexperienced workers and pay them peanuts.
You could hire an American citizen with a PhD.
Hobby projects that A) have no users so stability and usability is unimportant, B) have no one review code, or the results so correctness is unimportant, C) have no requirements to support it after the paper is written, so maintainability is unimportant all add up to shit general skills.
If a PhD has specific expertise you need then great, otherwise expect a mediocre entry level dev with a chip on their shoulder.
If you can't afford a dedicated specialist you'd pay for a consultancy firm who can lend you the specialist for a short period of time.