In my family's experience, we have had both situations. The H1-B can become a massive expense, especially if the State Department get's more involved in the pro

In my family's experience, we have had both situations. The H1-B can become a massive expense, especially if the State Department get's more involved in the process (sometimes called a "security check") and many tiems, the entire H1-B to GC process can cost in excess of $30-40k (The management overhead/legal fees are huge, well above the $3k filing fees), especially after you factor in risk of turn over to the employer. Between my parents and all of our friends (Russian born engineers mostly), we don't know of more than one or two cases out of dozens where someone was paid more than 10% below market wage