Why shouldn’t a sponsored visa employee be paid the same? LA costs the same whether you are a citizen of the US or not. Do we know for a fact we all suddenly would get pay raises if all migrants were deported and we stopped handing out visas?
Is it a given that all visa holders are paid less than their local equivalent? Would the requirement to pay any visa holder the same as a local candidate be a better solution than blocking people from immigrating? That way you know only the most qualified person is working that position, not the one willing to race to the bottom by working for a lower wage.
H1B sweatshops are typically operated by migrants from the same countries the peons they recruit from. They run their (to a huge extent legally captive) workforce within the social framework of their home country and usually with full understanding of the indenture situation by the workers.
So really the issue is the migrants are being abused and deserve better working conditions. With better working conditions where they receive equal pay and benefits as a local person then really companies would only hire visa holders if they were more qualified than local talent and thus more deserving of the position because of how many extra hurdles hiring a migrant and sponsoring a visa would add.
Basically correct. One other element to note though is that employers love H1B because they know it gives them huge power over the employee because the employee must leave the country immediately if they are fired and it can reset the whole process.
But once you take care of all the power asymmetries it would put US and foreign on an equal footing.
However I've also interesting trends where whole departments get formed all of one nationality and the siloing is huge.
When Sam from Kansas moves to LA he gets paid the local rate and switching jobs is hassle-free.
That isn't true of sponsored visa employees - I think that's the parent commenter's point.