H1B visa rules require a minimum salary based on location. It’s not that they can take ‘almost any offer’. The offer also has to satisfy the Labor Condition Application.
https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=&job=&city=san+francisco&y...
Low income in some areas of San Fransisco is roughly ~$95k a year for a family of 4. Minimum wage for the area $37k a year. Some of these H1B jobs are roughly 2x to 3x Minimum wage (in jobs that require 40-70 hours per week). These are not pay levels for in demand with no local availability of employee jobs, these are people taking poverty level jobs.
Given the current income percentiles in the US (https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-household-income-percen...). The current H1B min-salary is $60k, which is below the median household wage in the US.
The min-salary should instead be pegged to the p90, which is currently at $130k.
That way foreign workers (which includes myself and many friends) should absolutely be held to the highest standard and be the best and the brightest and pushing the bar higher for 90% of US citizens.
Why is household even relevant here?
Its above the annualized amount of the median full-time weekly pay.
FWIW, I disagree with this one point. I know a lot of partners of H1Bs and there is a large psychological toll to not being allowed to "contribute to society" if you are able and wanting to. There is also a large psychological toll to moving to a new country, a lot of America's adult friendships are created in the workplace. Finally there is a large psychological toll to not having independence in making some side money to be able to spend it the way you want (even if the money earner "gifts" that freedom - because why wouldn't they - there can be a guilt associated with using the money).
Therefore, I do think its overall worthwhile for partners of H1Bs to be allowed to work if they so choose.
That said, I do feel like the minimum household salary for getting an H1B should be high enough to compensate for potentially both people working in the US, in a way that helps uplift wages for US citizens. That might mean using p91 or p95, I'm not qualified to pick the exact value, but I do think the general strategy would be best for "the best and brightest" immigrant families(or individuals) and for citizens.