Your math in the exchange quoted below is waaaay off. $10/hr is about... $1600/month (assuming 40-hour weeks). $4800/month would mean that they’re working 120-hour weeks. I DON’T THINK SO!
The Mexican workers discussed in the article were making MORE than your recommended ‘fair’ wage!
I heard a welfare queen not long ago brag that she wouldn’t even think of a job for less than $25/hr, since she got the equivalent of $20/hr in cash and benefits.
I don’t think $10-20/hr is slave wages. What the businesses are trying to avoid are all the ‘fringe’ payments - insurance, SS/FICA, etc. - that are supposedly the LAW in this country. This could be handled 2 ways:
(1) require that ALL workers, including ‘illegals,’ be paid in accordance with the law; or (2) Change the law to let Americans work as independent contractors again. You’re not doing unskilled workers any favors by pricing them out of the market.
[quoted:]
““Yes, these are jobs Americans won’t do. Raise it to $10.00/hr and Americans would line up for $4800/month.” ...
“You contradict yourself. There is a difference between, “pay Americans won’t accept” and “jobs Americans won’t do”....Too many Wal-Marts, fast food chains and retail stores that pay twice that for unskilled labor. Only a fool or an illegal would work for that little when there are much better options.... “Slave labor ONLY need apply!”... Bingo! You nailed that.”
“I don’t think $10-20/hr is slave wages.”
I don’t think it is either. The fact is that many employers simply refuse to pay a competitive wage and as a result cannot get people to work for them. They then cry to the government. I’ve seen a woman from a California landscaping company recently say she starts her help at $7 an hour. I knew a guy in MS who started his landscaping help at $7 as well.....8 years ago...in MS.
For that money, a legal worker could get employment in much better working conditions. The fact is, these employers want what has become termed “slave labor”. Jobs taken by illegals at pay generally far less than the market demands by hiring legals. “Jobs Americans won’t do” is just another way of saying “jobs whose pay is far below market value”.