THE "MEXICANIZATION" OF LOW-WAGE U.S. JOBS - ("no hurry" in raising minimum wage)

NCPA.ORG ^ | MAY 3, 2005 | Editors

[CHARLITE]

Hispanic workers accounted for more than 1 million of the 2.5 million new jobs created by the U.S. economy in 2004. But Hispanics are the only major group of workers to have suffered a two-year decline in wages and they now earn 5 percent less than two years ago, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau.

Despite strong demand for immigrant workers, their growing supply and concentration in certain occupations suggests that the newest arrivals are competing with each other in the labor market to their own detriment, says the report's author Rakesh Kochhar. This “Mexicanization” of the U.S. job ladder’s lower rungs raises important political and economic questions:

Will support diminish for minimum-wage increases when most low-wage earners are immigrants who can’t vote? As industries like construction, food service, lodging and landscaping grow dependent on imported labor, will they face labor shortages if border security is tightened? The Pew study supports the theory that immigrants are supplementing the U.S. work force, not pushing native-born Americans out of jobs. Native-born U.S. workers have become better educated and more ambitious in the past four decades and are now seeking higher-skilled, higher-paying jobs.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the flip side of lower wages for workers is that employers can use the savings to keep prices lower. Additional immigrant labor can provide stability in industries where labor shortages are endemic.

Source: Rakesh Kochhar, "Latino Labor Report, 2004: More Jobs for New Immigrants but at Lower Wages," Pew Hispanic Center, May 2, 2005; and Joel Millman, “Low-Wage U.S. Jobs Get ‘Mexicanized,’ But There’s a Price,” Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2005.

For text:

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111499066092821715,00.html

For Pew Study:

http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/45.pdf

For more on Effects of Immigration:

http://www.ncpa.org/iss/imm/

[InvisibleChurch]

Why give Mexico a raise for doing nothing?

[wk4bush2004]

"strong demand for immigrant workers"

Yeah, ILLEGAL ones, as employers like to exploit.

[jeremiah]

Yessirreee Bob, once we get ALL Americans to graduate from college, the illegals can have any job that requires sweat. We all know people don't want those jobs anyway.

Journeyman carpenter $12.00 an hour, that is the advertisement at the local Dept of Employment. It'll probably go lower, because no citizens want to work that hard.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Here's a job

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Most immigrants that came to this country started at the bottom of the ladder and put up with an amazing amount of crap when they first came over. However two big differences: 1. The language was English, either learn it or get along without it. 2) No free medical care or welfare, etc.

There is no "illegal" problem if employers are prosecuted for hiring them. DUH.

[wk4bush2004]

Which is why employers need to be watched.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Watched is not good enough for me. Why should we pay tax dollars or have people brutalized by illegal criminals for employers PROFITS ? Start arresting and fining them, or close them down!

[sageb1]

I have to tell you that when I worked in Georgia, the most Mexican immigrants I worked with were those who have already started the process of immigration, following all laws. They worked their behinds off. They loved this country.

I am not for uncontrolled immigration, but Mexicanos who try to do everything the right way face years of red tape.

[Tacis]

An increase in the minimum wage accomplishes little and is nothing more than a dem neocommunists sop to their black vassels. Illegal Mexican labor is available at less than legal levels and no additional law will make ant difference.

So long as Mexican sneak across the border and work for low wage, real wage levels will stay low and, as they stay low, blacks will remain unemployed and dependent on the dems. When we stop wetbacks and send illegals home, wage rates will increase as employers bid for entry level workers. Labor economists call it the "reservation wage," the point at which wages are attractive enogh to cause an unemployed person, black, housewife or retired, to enter/reenter the workforce.

Illegal immigration is the cause of future race problems with blacks in this country. We must seal the borders, begin sending criminals of all stripes home and THEN develop a plan where we control the terms and conditions under which foreigners are allowed to live and work in our country.

[investigateworld]

Here in Oregon, we have simple basic health plan that most folks enrolls in as they are sick or injured. If your not covered, then you must provide a SSAN which will be verified. The hospitals and service providers will track you to the ends of the earth to collect. Should one attempt to give a bogus number, then after you meet the nice doctor, then we'll introduce you to the nice policeman who will arrest you for theft of services. Please note: The foregoing does not apply to illegals. Talk about a free ride. (SEAL THE FRIGGEN BORDER!!!)
Ahhh, the simple tag lines are the best.

[Issaquahking]

Journeyman carpenter $12.00 an hour, that is the advertisement at the local Dept of Employment. It'll probably go lower, because no citizens want to work that hard.

No carpenter can afford to take that job.... unless he has four families living in the same house and.....

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I have little confidence in a survey that ask illegals what they make.

[CHARLITE]

"I have little confidence in a survey that ask illegals what they make."

Smart observation. Thanks for that one, "robot!"

Char :)

[jeremiah]

You've got that exactly right. I was being facetious. It was an advertisment on a radio station out of Olympia for the job search. What is amazing is that it is meant to draw people in because it is such a deal. In '74, I was a carpenters apprentice, making $6.92 an hour. The journeymen at that time were making around $14.00. The presence of these illegals are NOW destroying the middle class. When the interest rates for mortgage go up significantly, how will anyone be able to rent a house, or buy one? Right now, prices are high, with wages being stagnant. In the not too far off future.........???