I've been through the visa process a few times at different companies, and it's pretty clear that even employers who are not "taking jobs away from US workers" are sticking to the letter of the law and not the spirit, since the goal is to get that candidate a visa. Microsoft would tell all of the green card applicants not to worry about PERM certification since MS needed so many people that if they found an equally qualified candidate, they would hire that candidate too, but when you see how things get crafted it's clear that company lawyers will do all they can to reduce the likelihood of there being any qualified applicants.
You can claim people are a level 1 computer programmer, and the prevailing wage is 65k: http://www.flcdatacenter.com/OesQuickResults.aspx?area=41884...
I've been through the visa process a few times at different companies, and it's pretty clear that even employers who are not "taking jobs away from US workers" are sticking to the letter of the law and not the spirit, since the goal is to get that candidate a visa. Microsoft would tell all of the green card applicants not to worry about PERM certification since MS needed so many people that if they found an equally qualified candidate, they would hire that candidate too, but when you see how things get crafted it's clear that company lawyers will do all they can to reduce the likelihood of there being any qualified applicants.