Both of those factors are Amazon&#x27;s choice. I really don&#x27;t see how Amazon would be any more &quot;screwed&quot; by not getting H1-B employees they won&#x27;t pay a competitive salary to than they are in not getting US citizens they won&#x27;t pay a competitive salary to. In fact, if they find the prices too high, they could always hire locals!<p>They could also expand their presence in their SF office, if somehow an area costing a lot to live in would become an advantage. Unless there&#x27;s an assumption that Amazon has some sort of unalienable <i>right</i> to hire foreign workers at less than local market rates, there really isn&#x27;t anything unfair about it.