An article in the LA Times in May showed the stupidity of the problem. People can’t connect point A to point B. They rail on illegal immigration but then drive to the corner by home depot looking for someone to do day labor work for $5/hr. not noticing that’s the root of the problem.

The article was about a Government Landscaping Contractor. Couldn’t find legal residents to do the jobs at $34/hr. Of course, those required experience. Luckily, since the Government sets the payment rate, entry level, literally, ditch digger, grunt labor, was $18/hr. the problem was, any non-government contract work at competitor companies is $8-9/hr.

Hence, the owner was too dumb to draw the line to the fact that illegal workers drove down the entry level work, hard physical work in the Cali-sun to be on par with what our kids can make in McDonald’s. Hence, no legal residents with experience to fill her $34/hr. crew supervisor job. And no takers on the entry level jobs becuase most look at it, know it’s hard work, and see 90% of the companies paying $8/hr. Here’s the link http://www.latimes.com/search/la-fi-jobs18may18,0,970169.story

As for the workers wanting $20/hr. Well, people don’t have to pay it. Or counter with show me your contractors license, you’re bonded right? But it is a two way street. How much should they make for doing Joe & Jane Suburbia’s physical work of clearing brush, installing pavers, painting etc. ?

PS, consider that your cleaning crew is not working 8 hours per day. They work comes in peak and valleys so their per hour wage is a lot less. Plus they have expenses for driving to your house, supplies, adverstsing, maybe commissions to real estate agents, etc…

What makes your think that they aren’t paying taxes? Maybe they are paying Social Security taxes at 15% which would make their net earnings a lot less!

Let’s not assume that a Hispanic is necessarily an illegal.

BTW, an illegal is not eligible for medical services under new-laws passed. Even a legal immigrant may not be eligible.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/29/AR2006062902093.html

Personally, I support the Hispanics because they are harworking people looking for a better life like anyone else. That’s why when doing a transaction, I always choose the Spanish option. When corporations realize that their customers are Spanish speakers, they will lobby for their customers. It took me years to learn Spanish so I might as well practice it.

I say no. If we’re already seeing layoffs in construction and other real estate related fields then what would be driving up wages? If anything, wages will become more depressed as out of work construction workers try to make ends meet and as everybody else cuts back on purchases and services.

It’s an urban myth that “illegals are paid so well, yet many continue to get paid under the table and don’t pay taxes or medical bills…oh, and they get preferential treatment when applying for schools and we taxpayers should help pay for it!”

Rankandfile, that is simply not true. Illegals are not eligible for welfare and social services. People without insurance actually pay 3 times more for the same service than people with insurance. The problem occurs when they walk and don’t pay but many do pay.

Illegals pay taxes indirect through their spending but get no benefits in return.

Doctors and hospitals bill about 3 times more to patients who don’t have insurance (private, medicare, etc..) Insurance cos have negotiated lower rates. Sometimes providers get paid, sometimes they don’t. If they don’t get paid, then they have to increase rates to other patients to make up for the loss.

Correct, emergency rooms cannot turn away patients, so people show up there when they are so sick that they cannot take it anymore.

But doctors’ offices do turn away patients all the time. That’s why there’s no preventive care and something that might have been a small matter turns into an emergency costing thousands of dollars at the emergency room (i.e. the tuberculosis case in the article you mentioned).

If we had universal preventive care, it would cost us a lot less in the long run. Diseases would not be left unchecked and spreading from people to people. Remember, human beings interact, cook food, they have sex, etc…

Also, call any pharmacy, if you have insurance you may pay $10 co-pay for a $100 prescription. But if you don’t have insurance you’ll have to pay $300 for the same prescription. Of course, pharmacies don’t have to give medicine to people who can’t pay.

Once a patient is out of the emergency room, if he is uninsured, he can’t get ongoing treatment. Consider a contagious disease for a minute. He’ll be spreading the disease until he needs to to go the emergency room again. Of course, he can’t pay so the cycle continues. In the mean-time, how many people did he infect? He might be cooking your food at the restaurant, or cleaning your hotel room.

Diseases don’t care if a person is a citizen or not. If we have disease amongst us, we are all worse off.

I might also add that most of the 40 million uninsured are citizens, not illegals.

The IRS rule is that if you pay a contract laborer more than $600 per year, you need to file a 1099. There is an exception for private household but I don’t remember what it is.

My feeling is that wages in the construction and related service (ie cleaning) industries have been rising because of the housing boom. More workers are needed to build and service all those new homes. Those wages will be depressed with the coming crash, but there’ll be a lag time. If everyone is busy, it’ll cost your more if you want the services now…. Remember, there are plenty of homes on which finishing touches need to be applied. When people move and sell they need to have their homes serviced.

I don’t think it’s too much for a cleaning person to charge $18/hour. Remember that cleaning person does not have a full schedule and needs to market himself like a business. A technician might make $18 working at a job full time. But if you want that technician on a private contract to come fix your computer at home, it’ll cost you about $125/hour. If you want him at night, it’ll cost you $200+/hour. You cannot compare an independent contractor to an employee. You have to think about the net income each worker gets. A contractor is like a business with revenue, minus expenses equals net income. If a business is busy, they’ll charge more to fit-in a client to make up for when they charge less when it’s slow.

My brother who is in the service business says that when he’s busy, he charges more when someone wants something immediately… He has different prices: the regular price, the nice-person price, the right-now price, and the pain-in-the-ass price.