If you have programmers being paid anywhere from $80K to $150K for a given skill set, the average is going to be lower than what the top companies pay.
The only way around that is to create another subset of programmers that only look at the highest wages.
It's simple: require that the employers pay the H1-B visaholder in the 95th percentile or above of the salary range for that position.
And if an employer is found to have abused the system (hired someone for a lower position and then made them do higher-level work, e.g., call them "tech support" when they're really a senior engineer), then force the company to pay the H1-B the equivalent of 100 years' salary and put any employees found to have been complicit in this in prison.
I think employers should pay a premium for H1B or any visa worker. If they truly need them and there is truly a dearth in candidates, they should be falling over each other to pay it.
If you have programmers being paid anywhere from $80K to $150K for a given skill set, the average is going to be lower than what the top companies pay.
The only way around that is to create another subset of programmers that only look at the highest wages.