Jobs Americans won't do?

Question

Several of us have posted links showing that now that Swift has raised wages they are getting a different mix of workers. Someone just posted saying a job where illegals were taken from work is not yet at full staffing when the employer has raised wages forty cents.

My thought is wages may need to be raised more than 40 cents. Farmworkers under Chavez made non-poverty level wages, which in today's dollars would require a pay increase of 40 PER CENT, not forty cents.

Meat packing, as this article shows, used to make 30 PER CENT more money, and according to this article, people waited in line to get those jobs.

What do you think?

Is it the pay, or disinclination of Americans to take these jobs?

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=93570

sqwirl, I don't care what color they are. When I said a different mix, I just meant legally here. Probably legal immigrants would be a big part of the replacement work force, but with higher wages, Americans would be more likely to value the jobs.

Vets only get 6 to $7? I don't believe in a welfare ethic, but I do think minimum wage and 'area pay' should be higher, particularly for combat vets. It isn't just big business that isn't taking care of its people properly.

Answer 1

Big business Greed without any social responsibility

Answer 2

The economic practices to lower labor costs through legislation disregarding the basic needs of workers in favor of the bottom line is a double edged sword that's cutting all of our throats. Just watched a Tom Brokaw special on the illegal immigration situation with regards to a booming construction company based
in the southern Colorado Rockies that does infastructure/dirt work. He can't get enough legal citizens within their area to meet their labor demands. Not once did I hear the owner say anything about the fact that the 14$per/+bene's he was offering is about a third less of the pay anywhere else in the country. That's where the problem lies--14$ may be twice the minimum wage but it's not the going rate and not nearly enough to lure a qualified worker from another state. He did a lot of moaning about how he had to turn down contracts cause he didn't have the workforce. Maybe if he paid wages that would attract a work force, hed be more profitable all the way around. You get what you pay for.

Answer 3

Wages have gone from starting pay of $11.25/hr in 1986 to $8.00/hr in 2006. Thats a $3.25/hr reduction in 20 YEARS!! Our wages should be going UP not DOWN. Another plant here use to start at $10.00/hr, now starts you out at $7.50/hr.

As for doing the jobs Americans won't do. There is no job Americans won't do, for better than a third world wage. Illegal invaders should not be here in the first place competing with Americans for wages.

Without illegal aliens, the price of agricultural products and other goods and services will NOT soar. The definitive study on this subject is the University of Iowa's "How Much Is That Tomato?" The study concludes that 'since labor is such a small component of the end-price of agricultural products (which includes price to the growers, transportation costs, processing /storage costs, grocers' profit, etc.), using minimum wage workers instead of illegal aliens would increase prices of agricultural products by approximately 3 percent in the summer and 4 percent in the winter ... hardly the making of $10 heads of lettuce, $25 hamburgers, $1,000 per night Days Inn hotel rooms like the pro-illegal alien lobby claims.

Answer 4

Yes, they have dropped the pay. Where I live, the only 2 plants to work in employed very strict impossible rules in order to drive out American workers. Then, they hired hispanics, lowered the pay, and cut down the benefits to skeletal proportiions. As I said, these were the ONLY 2 places to work around here that paid over minimum wage. Now, a bunch of Americans are out of work and this place is bringing them in at an astounding rate. 5 years ago there were 0 hispanics here. Now the workforce is at about 87% hispanic. Yes, they took our jobs.

Answer 5

Pure capitalism, and a comprehensive immigration system solves all these problems and concerns. Any job that "NEEDS" to be done WILL get done in a capitalist society. If lettuce needs harvesting, and Americans are not willing to do it for less than $40 per hour, well then the cost of lettuce will have to go way up, and workers will find themselves picking lettuce for $40/hr. Its that simple. But as long as we allow illegal immigrants (or should I say "legal slaves") to flood the market, and work 10 hour days for $20 under the table in order to get lettuce on your table for dirt cheap, then thats the way things are going to be.

Answer 6

That is crap....Americans can do the jobs which Americans created , but we cannot support our families on $7.00hr. We as Americans were not raised that way so why should we cater and embrace lower wages because people from a poor and not so well governed country can sneak over and do jobs for much less and employers who hire them expect us to do the same.....

Answer 7

The issue is a living wage. Americans and immigrants alike better wake up to this.

Answer 8

It is the pay plain and simple An illegal worker will work for a lot less than a legal one will

Answer 9

Its disrespect. Americans are supposed to run to fill jobs that were kept away from them before? These companies need to go out of business. Stop buying their products. If they love getting illegals in there, well then they better have fun selling their product to the very same illegals. One hand washes the other.

Answer 10

It's pay, plain and simple, also, even with the tax cuts, the price of meat didn't drop 30% when they cut the pay to meat packers so where did that money go? corporate proifits?, executive bonuses? am I close?