Posted on 12/23/2006 7:53:24 AM PST by dennisw
I don't know how that would work. Because a landscape worker is paid minimum wage, grocery clerks make less?
I think the unemployment stat is those who file for unemployment. Otherwise, they are not counted. So, the stats undercount as a rule.
susie
Well, and how do they know who is looking for a job? I mean, I looked for a job for 2 years after we moved and no one ever came to ask me, nor was there a place to *sign* up to say I was looking.
susie
I suppose that if wages at the bottom are less, those folks have less disposable income, thus they spend less, so people in jobs that service them (grocery clerks are an excellent example as everyone buys groceries) may well make less.
susie
That's one way of looking at it, but I don't think it's right. An employer is interested in paying the least amount possible that will still attract qualified people to take the job.
Illegal aliens aren't generally equipped to compete for grocery clerk jobs, at least not until they've been here long enough to speak passable english, etc. So their presence isn't really relevant to what employers must pay to attract labor for that position.
I guess it's true that if a large portion of the population doesn't make enough money to buy stuff, that puts a squeeze on employers, but that doesn't seem apparent yet. Witness the lines at any store this week.
It would work by a couple of mechanisms.
1) because as illegals gain experience, connections and knowledge about how to move up the employment ladder (while continuing to accept wages and living conditions below what Americans and legal residents would, and while people like Bush continue to sit on their hands), illegals gradually move into those rungs.
In the past, only workers doing the most menial jobs would have to worry about wage depression from illegal labor. Now it's basically anyone in any trade you can think of.
2) People who can no longer, due to wage depression, work doing jobs that illegals have taken over have to move into a field in which the illegals haven't. That means there are more people in that field competing for those jobs, which means wages go down in that field.
That is what I was suggesting (not that I knew it was true, but that it would make some sense that it could be).
BTW out here in S. FL most of our grocery checkers speak Creole (I think they're from Haiti) and their English is often not very good. With the scanners I guess it doesn't matter all that much. They speak back and forth to each other in Creole and speak minimally to customers, either because they can't or maybe they're just rude. Hard to tell. I also doubt they are here illegally, just making the point that you don't appear to have to have a great command of English to do that job. In many parts of S. FL you could probably do it well if you spoke predominantly Spanish.
susie
I just wish the Feds would be a little more thrifty with our money. Throwing one executive in jail would do more to curb illegal immigration than a thousand raids of this type.
On the other hand, their presence has kept agricultural wages low. If all the Mexicans disappeared, farmers might have to pay $25 an hour to get Americans to pick strawberries.
That's the marketplace for you. Well, the legal marketplace, anyway.
Public school math classes?
I suppose, but there's no question that consumers benefit from the low wages paid to these workers.
That doesn't excuse the fact that they're here illegally, and it doesn't address the costs that are passed onto the consumer in such notable areas as health care and other social benefits.
I don't know how to weigh this. If we had to pay workers $25 an hour to pick strawberries, the cost for strawberries would probably be too high for me to want to buy them.
On the other hand, my health care costs are skyrocketing. There's no question that we have to do a better job of making sure everyone in this country is here legally, or not at all.
I have no problem with giving Mexican workers seasonal permits to work, especially doing those menial jobs that none of us aspire to. But that shouldn't put them on the path to citizenship or entitle them to benefits we should reserve for citizens.
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I got laid off Friday. It was slow for the last month at work. Probable will not do the unemployment thing, but I am looking. BTW... boss did keep 4 illegals for some reason. Wonder why?
How much English does it take to be a checker at a grocery story? Hi, how are you, thank you.
I shop is several stores where the employees don't speak much English beyond that. Perhaps you live in an area with fewer immigrants.
Thank you very much for the information. I'll call them. The only thing is I don't know how you can prove they are cheating if they have a doctor that goes along with them, but still I'll call & find out what they need to know. Thanks again!
I'm sorry to hear that. What's your occupation?
"BTW... boss did keep 4 illegals for some reason."
Sorry to hear you were laid off. You should collect unemployment because contrary to employer beliefs you did pay into unemployment benefits. Your state should have a record of your hours worked. I hate it when employers bitch about having to pay for ALL the unemployment benefits.
Its the legal Chinese and Mexicans that are getting rich in this town. Buying up property, making a fortune on feeding us beans and rice, for a price.
Anyone of us could have done it with a strong work ethic, family support and nobody turning us in for doing anything illegal. Like selling subsistance caught salmon and advertising surimi as alaskan king crab on the menu.
I just happened to have taken a Greyhound bus deep into the heart of California. I thought I was in a foreign country. It wasn't bad at all. Nice people and very family oriented. Checking the paper for jobs I knew I didn't stand a chance, not being able to speak spanish, and all.
My occupation ended the beginning of last year. I was a machine tech for the complete machines that sewed the toes in socks. The town's main industry (and it was NOT union, never was) was sock manufacturing. Jobs moved to Central America and to China.
So I went in another direction, I went to work for a firm that did various construction jobs (putting in water systems for KFC and others). They also do/did yard work and Hurricain repairs (usually canals etc.).. Banner year when hurricains hit the coast, but Al Bore was not correct in his prediction of more bad weather. I worked in the mainance shop area, which involved anything from fixing riding lawnmowers to putting starters on tractors. Changing Oil to rebuilding weedeaters.
There isn't much else in this town. Disney is moving a distribution center here next year. Hopefully I can find something until I have a chance there.
The name of the author sounds fake. "From a Har rop"
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