Thank you so much for pointing that out! So these requirements apply specifically for "H-1B dependent employers" and "willful violator employers".

I found this flier [1] defining "H-1B dependent employers".

  An employer is considered H-1B-dependent if it has: 
  
  • 25 or fewer full-time equivalent employees and at least
    eight H-1B nonimmigrant workers; or 
  • 26 - 50 full-time equivalent employees and at least 13 H-1B
    nonimmigrant workers; or 
  • 51 or more full-time equivalent employees of whom 15 percent or
    more are H-1B nonimmigrant workers.  

So I take that to mean if you are a large company, you just need to keep H-1B below 15 percent of your TOTAL FTE (not just your engineering FTE) and the requirement to take good faith steps to recruit U.S. workers for the same job does not apply. Would you agree?

I have to believe the requirement must not apply... because any good faith effort to hire a U.S. worker for the 95th percentile H-1B job would result in a U.S. worker being hired. If it actually did apply in most H-1B cases, then I want to sign up for the class action suing basically every tech company there is that has ever hired an H-1B.

EDIT: Thinking more on the 15% threshold for large companies... that is incredibly high. Seems like it's off from where it reasonably should be by more than an order of magnitude!

EDIT 2: Also, there is this: "H-1B dependent employers who wish to hire only H-1B workers who are paid at least $60,000 per year or have a master's degree or higher in a specialty related to the employment, can be exempted from these additional rules."

[1] - http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/FactSheet62/whdfs62C....