[gwenshap]

I think this may strongly depend on the home country (thus creating more distortion).

Home country is not necessarily Bangladesh, it could be UK or Switzerland, in which case the H1B holder can and does negotiate for market rate salary or he will go to his home country where he is payed fairly and life is just as good.

[arohner]

You're right, assuming the H1B employer is honest. However, the defacto primary use-case of an H1B is to depress the wages that MegaCorp pays its employees.

The current advocates of the Startup Visa probably have honest intentions, but I guarantee that after 10 years, the startup visa will work similarly to the H1B program.