evaluated H1-B and L-1 Visa. Are US companies taking advantage of cheap labor in H-1B Visa applicants? This is the question some government officials are asking. The Economic Policy Institute released a briefing paper titled “Bridge to Immigration or Cheap Temporary Labor? The H-1B & L-1 Visa Programs Are a Source of Both.” H-1B is a temporary nonimmigrant work visa that allows U.S. employers to hire college-educated migrant workers as well as fashion models from abroad; nearly 500,000 migrant workers are employed in the United States in H-1B status. The H-1B is an important—but deeply flawed—vehicle for attracting skilled workers to the United States. The H-1B visa is in desperate need of reform for a number of reasons that we have explained in other writings, but the fundamental flaw of the H-1B program is that it permits U.S. employers to legally underpay H-1B workers relative to U.S. workers in similar occupations in the same region. DOL has set the two lowest levels (of the four) well below the local median wage.