"Depends on what you call a "livable" wage. If it has to enough to pay rent, food(including cigarettes and alcohol), insurance, car, and some spending money, I've heard that that is about $25/hour. How many people make that with one job? Lot's of people work more than one job or more than one member of the family works."
Good point. A lot of jobs are traditionally held by students or less qualified workers with no skills.
But when I was in such a situation in Texas, I was able to support a family of 4 on $1200 a month after taxes, making about $10 an hour.
Mexicans typically make far less than that and drive the wages far further down. I saw drywall hanger pay go from $2.80 a sheet down to $1.50 a sheet in the course of 5 years, from 1978 to 1983 and that was almost all due to the effect of tons of illegal labor.
Imagine what the drywall hangers went through losing about 45% of their income because the government stopped enforcing the immigration laws.
But let's not kid ourselves with the "talking points" from BOTH sides of this matter - we have to fix both sides of this problem.
My family survived on Enlisted Military Pay IN SAN DIEGO, CA for ten years so I know what reality is for a lot of people - you have to live within your means, which is not what television and public school are teaching our kids.
My wife grew up eating whatever was grown or slaughtered by the family. Store-bought was a rare luxury city slickers enjoyed.
But I will say it again, the number of Americans who are willing to WORK and make life work out no matter what is getting very slim. Teens and twenty-somethings are constantly complaining about what they ain't got and refusing to work for the money they do get paid. How is customer service for you these days? I help people every time I go to any store because nobody in the store knows the answers anymore. I do nearly all repairs to my home and cars because the "Americans" I go to either don't fix it right, can't fix it, or want 500% in fees for what it would cost me to do it myself. I don't hire suspicious or obviously illegal alien workers because I've seen too many things not work out right, codes are not necessarily met, and some people get burned.