Maybe they don't need H1Bs then? The stated goal of the H1B is to attract talent that is otherwise unavailable in the United States. If someone is offering six figures and still can't find applicants, I'm willing to believe there is really no available talent. But if someone is offering $60k and can't find talent, an alternate hypothesis is: maybe you aren't offering enough to attract the talent? Have you tried $70k or $80k? You may argue that $60k is a fairly high salary for the area, but that isn't enough to establish that such talent is unavailable in the United States.

There are alternate rationales where it would be justifiable to support an H1B-type system in that case too, but the H1B system's stated rationale isn't to allow companies in lower-cost areas to hire cheap-ish labor when they aren't willing to pay the national going rate for the talent they're looking for.

Exactly. I am in Arkansas, $100k is crazy, only a director of a big department can make this kind of money.

Really, a senior dev can't make $100k with bonuses? You should come to Atlanta. Only about a 15% higher cost of living than Little Rock, and you can definitely make $100k as a senior developer.

Heck, come to Knoxville TN. Lower cost of living and 100K is fairly easily attainable for a senior dev.

Not many options left for exchange scholars beyond the extension of J visas now. It'll have some impact on science output in the US.