The debate of whether H1-B visas are offering a backdoor for corporations to lower their salary base without having a legitimate need to procure the talent overseas has been raging for a long time.
The Economic Policy Institute (author of the graph shown above) is undoubtedly critical of the practice.
One needs to remember though that a legitimate need is often times the driver behind the H1-B imports. The US does have a shortage of IT personnel and without the H1-B program and the accumulated import of foreign workers which has happened since the inception of the program certain industries in this country would not be in the "fighting form" they are in right now.
The contribution H1-B workers have been making for countless corporations are significant and a huge net positive.
Never the less though, the numbers speak for themselves and certainly made me make a double take.