H-1B workers are paid less, even though the law requires that they receive prevailing wages, according to the study by John Miano, a former chairman of the Programmers Guild, a group that has been critical of the H-1B program.

Miano's report compares wage data that employers file with the Labor Department against U.S. wage data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While employers must attest that they will pay prevailing wages on a form called the Labor Condition Application, Miano says in the report that agency officials haven't been required to verify that data.

Meanwhile, employers can use their own salary surveys for entry-level workers to justify paying lower wages, 'rather than more relevant and objective data sources, to make prevailing wage claims when hiring H-1B workers,' wrote Miano.

One result is lower wages for H-1B workers. For instance, the study found a mean 2003 wage for H-1B programmers of $49,258. Labor Department data pegged the mean 2003 wage salary for U.S. programmers at $65,000.

Recommendations for improving the wage disparity, which can put downward pressure on the rates paid to U.S. workers, include limiting the number of H-1B visas that an employer can obtain each year based on the number of U.S. employees at each company, as well as requiring companies to use a 'standard wage source' produced by the federal government when making prevailing-wage claims.