Illegal Workers Suppress Wages

Illegal workers are a problem that is important to African Americans because they interfere with the natural progression of wages.

No one may want to pick oranges for $5 per hour or a $1 per bushel, but they would for $7 and some benefits or $9 with none.

In a competitive labor market employers are forced to raise wages and incentives in order to attract workers who would otherwise do something else. When illegal workers enter the picture they are exploited because their employment options are greatly limited by their illegal status and often times language barriers. Also, many illegal workers do not intend to live in the Unite States permanently so they send a good deal of their money back to their countries of origin. The disparity between the cost of living in their countries and ours is often great enough that the $5 per hour job they take here is the equivalent of a $15 per hour job there. This works out great for them and the employers that hire them, but it leaves the unskilled or low skilled legal American worker with suppressed wages because employers aren’t forced to pay more.

The companies say we can’t compete if we have to pay wages that high, but that is why, historically, the government has subsidized some industries. Unsubsidized companies need to develop business models that work without illegal workers or fold up shop.

We don’t need a big wall or electric fence across the border; we need to severely fine and punish the business and industries that create the demand and send back illegal workers as we catch them.

Instead of the “guest slavery program” the president proposed, we should expand and properly fund the immigration service so they can enforce the existing laws and protect low income Americans.