Please note, this (both figures) is above minimum wage in my state. And, this is a job I would do! Course, I'm not willing to move to Houston, I think they have their hands full of visitors!
"A typical worker might make $9 to $14 an hour, Brindley added. Though IFCO officials could not be reached for comment Thursday , the family of one Houston employee, an illegal immigrant, said he was making about 25 to 35 cents per pallet"
I'm sure you would do this job, if offered. However, as an employer, your $9-14 an hour in salary costs me $18-28 in order to provide you with benefits, pay social security taxes and retirement benefits, just to start. Let's not even consider just how much it costs just to convince the gov't that I'm in compliance with all the legal mumbo-jumbo (which in effect, makes me as employer an agent of the state -- reporting your income to the government, for example) that comes with employing you.
I don't want to see companies remain profitable or competetive by hiring illegal labor, but something also needs to be done with the crushing costs of benefits and such. There also needs to be a change of attitude in the American worker; there are no "jobs Americans won't do", only "jobs Americans wont do because they don't come with dental and a 401(k)".
The issue is not the pay scale; the issue is the benefits and the compliance costs.
With 53 plants across the country, the nation's largest supplier of recycled pallets...
Probably one just down the street from you, let us know how you like the work.