Well, not in so many words. But you may recall that a few months ago, when the illegal immigration debate was particularly hot around here, I floated raising the minimum wage – and then really enforcing it – as a way of stemming illegal immigration. I thought that might make those low wage jobs that Americans supposedly won’t take more attractive to Americans, and therefore unavailable to illegal immigrants. I also noted the fact that Republicans, who tend to complain the loudest about illegal immigration, are generally also the obstacles to raising the minimum wage. I was, as I recall, roundly ridiculed.
Well, not so fast! Apparently, Mike Dukakis and one Daniel Mitchell, “a professor of management and public policy at UCLA,” have been catching up on their back issues of BMG. No doubt inspired by my work, they write on the op-ed page of today’s NY Times (sub. req’d):
There is a simpler alternative. If we are really serious about turning back the tide of illegal immigration, we should start by raising the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to something closer to $8…. Once the minimum wage has been significantly increased, we can begin vigorously enforcing the wage law and other basic labor standards….
Americans will work at jobs that are risky, dirty or unpleasant so long as they provide decent wages and working conditions, especially if employers also provide health insurance. Plenty of Americans now work in such jobs, from mining coal to picking up garbage. The difference is they are paid a decent wage and provided benefits for their labor.
However, Americans wonât work for peanuts, and these days the national minimum wage is less than peanuts….
Curiously, most members of Congress who take a hard line on immigration also strongly oppose increasing the minimum wage, claiming it will hurt businesses and reduce jobs. For some reason, they donât seem eager to acknowledge that many of the jobs they claim to hold dear are held by the same illegal immigrants they are trying to deport.
But if we want to reduce illegal immigration, it makes sense to reduce the abundance of extremely low-paying jobs that fuels it. If we raise the minimum wage, itâs possible some low-end jobs may be lost; but more Americans would also be willing to work in such jobs, thereby denying them to people who arenât supposed to be here in the first place. And tough enforcement of wage rules would curtail the growth of an underground economy in which both illegal immigration and employer abuses thrive.
Raising the minimum wage and increasing enforcement would prove far more effective and less costly than either proposal currently under consideration in Congress. If Congress would only remove its blinders about the minimum wage, it may see a plan to deal effectively with illegal immigration, too.
Ah, if only ideas could be copyrighted. Anyway, my idea (and let’s be clear on that, Mike and Dan: I thought of it first!) might still be wrong – but at least now it’s wrong on the NY Times op-ed page!
Hat tip to Jay for seeing the op-ed.
I posted that Mitt vetoed the minimum wage bill
You know those lawn maintenance jobs and dishwasher jobs “Americans won’t take?”
<
p>
If you raise the minimum wage to $8 an hour, employers will be even more tempted to replace those previous minimum wage jobs at $6 an hour (or whatever the current MA minimum is) with illegals ones at $4.
<
p>
Now the gap — $8 versus $4 instead of $6 versus $4 — is larger, and more expensive to fill with legal employment. This isn’t taking into account money saved by dodging all the other employment taxes and mandatory finge benefits.
<
p>
I agree that the problem would be helped with perfect enforcement, but is that possible?
we should allow employers to pay what everyone agrees is an excessively low minimum wage because if we raise it to a reasonable level, they’ll be tempted to break the law twice, once by illegally hiring undocumented workers, and a second time by paying them less than the minimum wage.
<
p>
Should we really allow the anticipated illegal behavior of unscrupulous employers to dictate wage policy?
It’s not that “we should allow” employers to pay a low minimum wage that I think is the issue here, it’s that the assumption that raising the minimum wage will somehow reduce employment of illegal immigrants is likely incorrect. For the reason stated above, it is in fact more likely that employment of illegal immigrants will increase. That’s why it comes down to enforcement, ID cards, etc., not the minimum wage (which nevertheless should be raised significantly, but not because it ties into the illegal immigration issue).
<
p>
And for once, it seems Bush is correct and Dukakis is wrong on one narrow point: The reason illegal immigrants are taking the jobs and Americans aren’t is not because Americans “won’t work for peanuts”, but rather because the number of native-born Americans is simply not high enough to sustain the economy requiring those jobs. Without illegal immigrants, a lot of the jobs would be left unfilled, even if there was a minimum wage increase, because there wouldn’t be enough people to fill them.
If enforcement were perfect, there would be no illegal employment at any minimum wage level.
<
p>
Until that happens, more jobs will go unfilled as the minimum wage increases.
the greater the incentive to ignore it.
<
p>
Does this mean we shouldn’t improve air quality standards, in fear that power plants currently in compliance will take their particle filters off instead of enhancing them? If the speed limit on your street is lowered from 35 mph to 25 mph, will you suddenly start driving 65 instead of a “below the radar” 43?
<
p>
I think you have a fair point — if the minimum wage increases, there may be some employers who currently obey the law to move to the dark side. However, it seems to me that most wouldn’t, and the impact of higher wages leading to Americans “willing to do the job” (as well as all of the other benefits of living wages) would be far greater than this dark-side behavior you suggest may happen. So, net positive methinks.
Not every job is worth $8 an hour. Raising the statutory minimum wage doesn’t change the intrinsic economic value of jobs in the marketplace.
<
p>
Progressives think that increasing the minimum wage will give every current minimum wage earner a raise. This is patently false. At the margin, some minimum wage earners will lose their jobs or suffer reduced hours as employers (mostly small ones) will need to cut costs in order to pay for the higher wages. Business can’t simply raise their prices to cover the added wages.
<
p>
And saving on the hourly rate isn’t the only incentive to hire illegal workers. The other employment tax burdens — sometimes as much as 40% of the base wage rate — are avoided when employers hire illegal immigrants. This is why you see some illegals receiving $10 an hour … that’s a bargin considering the FICA and other employment taxes and fringe benefits not paid.
<
p>
As long as the minimum wage remains high, in combination with the additional employment taxes and other employment burdens, there will be a demand for illegal immigrants. Raise the minimum wage, and you further stimulate the demand for illegal workers.
<
p>
As I’ve said in many prior posts, it’s not the jobs Americans won’t take, it’s the jobs American can’t take that draw illegal immigrants across the border.
I think the site has to expand in order to make room for David’s ego. 🙂 Actually I think your idea is a good one, not only do we need to make sure that there is a living wage in this country and we need to make sure that our laws are being enforced (isn’t that, after all, the whole mantra of the kick them out crowd, law enforcement?) so workers aren’t exploited. In raising the minimum wage I think we can accomplish the latter with the former just being assumed.
They passed a bylaw which fined EMPLOYERS for hiring illegals. They are being called racist and reactionaary by progressives down here.
<
p>
Please advise.
but it strikes me as extraordinarily unlikely that a municipality has any legal right to fine employers for violations of federal law. If that’s so, then Sandwich’s action was just grandstanding.
Did anyone else read that the same way?
<
p>
I mean, an economist says, ok, here’s what we do, jack up the minimum wage to the point that we eliminate hamburger flippers,car washers, hotel maids, fruit pickers. With that the U.S. would have fewer jobs and fewer jobs to offer and with fewer jobs to offer the immigrants won’t want to be here.
<
p>
Then I expected him to say, “ha..only kidding.”
<
p>
Was that sarcasm in the op-ed piece, ’cause here’s what Mr. Mitchell said in June, 2006
gone…and I hate to paraphrase, so I guess I’ll have to wait ’til Economist Mitchell comes around again.
You think having Duke proposing your idea is a good thing? Dukakis is a blithering idiot and if he is for your idea, then I suggest you abandon it like a family in China would abandon a female child; just call your idea stillborn and move on.
<
p>
Democrats should insist that the current wage laws be enforced. President Bush has refused to allow his justice department to prosecute employers who utilize illegal alien workers. This is an issue that the Democrats can use, too bad they have no stones and are so beholden to the special interests.
<
p>
Illegal immigration hurts our national security, our personal security and most of all hurts our poor. If there was a thing called freedom of speech in the Democratic Party I think you would hear candidates saying just that. Too bad the Democratic speech patrol is on the job, if they were in charge of our borders the flood of illegal deadbeats would be reduced to a trickle.