Posted on 03/15/2018 6:09:14 AM PDT by PapaBear3625
A whistleblower in the southern California construction industry says illegal alien workers have “taken over every trade” in the business while driving down wages by an estimated 40 percent.
...
Blaine Taylor, the whistleblower, said the construction industry in California once offered a starting wage of about $45 an hour in the late 1980s. Fast-forward to 2018 — nearly two decades into when illegal aliens began flooding the industry — he now says that wages have fallen by more than half, standing at just $11 an hour.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I think that the $45/hr refers to the amount that the contractor charges to his client as the current rate with the wage to a master level construction carpenter that can run a job at about $25/hr. That's about a 1.8 multiplier, which strikes me as high since their business model is to immediately layoff when a job is complete and no other work is available to roll into.
I am retired now from consulting engineering and am acquainted with multipliers. For example, both white collar salaried workers and skilled techs (likely with a college AS or BS degree or military training) will have a target 3.0 multiplier. These folks are permanent employees not temps that come and go as billable projects come and go. The higher multiple is to cover the wages during the slack times when there is zero billable so as not to layoff.
On demand, I can contact various temp companies that can provide me with any trade or skill and provide me with workers that are US citizens or legally resident aliens with a green card plus the workers are covered under workers comp and their temp company employer is insured. The rates to me are fair and the salary to the worker in line with local rates.
I believe that the tax issue is the driver for the illegal workers in the trades. By tax issue, this really means tax fraud initiated by the employer to put more $$$ in their pocket and facilitating illegals doing their frauds. Hmmmm sounds a bit like a RICO operation. The IRS and DOJ could crush this and since they have not are complicit.
People out west knew this 25+ years ago...And illegals have done the same thing to many other industries.
Some people have really short memories.
You’re wrong pal.
Throw in the entire heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) industry, landscaping, warehousing, food industry, etc, etc...
We have had the same Californicating Home since the late 1970’s.
Our roof was about 8 years old done by a lily white roofing owner and apparently a herd of illegals, and we had leaks.
Every time they sent out repair guys, with the exception of one guy, English was impossible for them to communicate with. I would demand the English speaking guy when a leak happened.
We had the roof replaced in a couple of years by the same outfit, recommended by most builders and of course the service clubs.
That roof had problems, and by this time, I told the owner, either he came out or the one amigo, who knew roofing, repairs and could speak English.
We had one more roof by the same outfit to meet insulation codes. Of course it had leaks too, and the good amigo fixed those.
3 years ago we needed another new roof. Our contractor recommended a friend, a good Irish guy. He, his brothers, a son and a couple of long time honky roofers put on a new roof with a lower bid than the other guy.
The roof had a leak at one of the new skylights. The owner was out a few hours after I texted him. He and his brother fixed the leak.
A year later, another new skylight leaked, and the owner sent out one of his Honky guys. In fact the guy who had installed the sky light. Again, he was out in a few hours and fixed the leak.
Our “new” roofer is in very high demand as people are becoming wary of the other roofers.
There's your problem right there. I worked construction in Indiana in 1979-1981 to help put myself through college, and entry pay then was $6.50/hour. The $45/hour is clearly a union wage, and they have just as clearly priced themselves out of the realistic market.
Money is like water; it follows the path of least resistance and seeks its own level. If you are overpriced, the buyer will find a less expensive alternative. If it's sufficiently overpriced, the buyer won't care about legal niceties.
Southern California loved slavery in 1859. So much that they wanted to split California and form the territory of Colorado.
The Pico Act was an 1859-60, attempt by Californians and pro-slavery Southerners to separate the southern counties of California into a separate Territory of the United States. It was voted on, signed by the governor, and sent to Washington DC for action. The Civil War got in the way.
Seems they still like cheap, cheap labor.
Since the Pico Act was never voted on, can it be revived and voted on to split up California into red and blue states?
I don’t doubt it.
>
Why confuse the issues of regulations with illegal labor? What is the point except to muddy the waters?
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Confuse? They BOTH stem from the same root cause: GOVT
Regulations - the explosive grown of ILLEGAL govt = ever increasing cost to the taxpayer\Citizen.
Illegal labor - govt, tasked w/ defending/protecting our borders, as well as enforcing immigration, *NOT* doing once of its few/lawful duties\responsibilities.
If govt were its rightful size/scope BOTH would be far less of an issue than We have allowed today. IMO, the latter cannot exist w/o the former.
It’s such a shame to see this happening in such a beautiful state.
Exactly. That’s why it’s people are leaving in droves and it has the highest poverty rate in the country. CA. libs have killed the “Golden Goose”, that was the Golden State.
Yes, it’s even a little more than 75%.
I recently saw an ad for the same job at $8/hr-$9/hr.
With inflation, the job should pay $23/hr-$24/hr, just to stay even.
It hasn't, because Juan, Jose and Pablito are there.
I note that home builders are not selling the homes for 40%-50% less than 1980-- that's where the difference is going.
Illegal immigration is all about American businesses breaking the law to get a higher profit. It's not different than tax cheating or fraud or any other unlawful, profit generating activity, and shouldn't be tolerated any more than those are.
I’m not “blaming” the Unions. I’m wondering why the unions are not screaming about illegals costing them jobs and money - and why they are not opposing every democrat who supports illegal aliens.
It seems the fickle far-left has abandoned a long-ime loyal constituency for the flavor of the day/year/decade.
“starting wage of about $45 an hour in the late 1980s. Fast-forward to 2018 — nearly two decades into when illegal aliens began flooding the industry — he now says that wages have fallen by more than half, standing at just $11 an hour.”
And the builders passed on the savings......
So, I credit the UNIONS for this nightmare that California has become."
An excellent point, but one that's manifesting itself across the entire nation (just at a more recent & slower pace in other places).
California now has huge poverty and huge public debt. Both are the direct result of illegal Mexican aliens. The feds need to take control with marshal law.
Too bad they’re not returning home with their work ethic.
“Can’t blame the Unions on this one.”
Yes, we can.
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