Thanks for the correction.
Per "Dept of Agriculture" paid farm labor is less than 1 million.
I wonder what are the other 11 million illegals doing?
And if we make all the illegals, legal, are they going to all quit? After all they would be then be Americans, and Americans won't pick lettuce.
In this case I printed it and I'm sitting here looking at it, which was the only reason I made the correction. Also in the file is this:
Not working illegals 3.9 million
Working illegals is 7.2 million
4.9% of all workers are illegal immigrants
Illegals:
Farming 24%
Cleaning 17%
Construction 14%
Food preparation 12%
Manufacturing 9%
Transport 7%
and 2% of all other occupations
One interesting graphic was if farm wages grew -
US Average spent on fruits and vegetables in 2004 $370
Farmers receive about $65 of that
Farm workers typically get a third or less of the farmers share, or $22
The two salient points to this are
1. "A 40% rise in the average wage (now $8.83 an hour) would lift those workers above poverty level incomes."
2. "That adds $9 to the $370 cost of produce, about 2 or 3 cents per dollar."