[pmiller2]

$208k minimum salary does seem a little steep in order to justify hiring a foreign worker over an American. But, at least I like that startups are saying "it's too expensive" rather than "there's a talent shortage!" There's never been a "talent shortage." There's been a lack of incentive for said talent to join tech companies. Money is an easy way to make up for said lack of incentive, but companies don't want to open their wallets enough to get rid of the "talent shortage."

[waste_monk]

>$208k minimum salary does seem a little steep in order to justify hiring a foreign worker over an American

I thought the idea was that it's for foreign workers who are so rare or specialised that you simply cannot get a local to do the same job. It's hard for outsiders to a given industry to evaluate whether someone is exceptional enough to grant a visa, so the salary is an indirect measurement - if they can command that sort of money then they're probably rare enough that it's a legitimate request for the H-1B.