For example: does anyone know how much below minimum wage an undocumented worker (say, a fruit picker, construction worker or a maid/nanny) makes? How about the hourly wage of a legal worker doing the same type of work?
If possible, it would be nice to see numbers. I don’t see how the costs of employees truly makes that much of a difference in those business models.
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I think most of the savings are in payroll taxes and worker’s comp – and they never have to worry about lawsuits. I think construction workers are making 8-12 dollars an hour. I think they are all paid above minimum wage. I think the employers just don’t want to follow labor laws.
trouble is employers can pay the undocumented workers close to nothing, while hourly wages are (in most countries) bound to a minimum. Say a company decides to take on an undocumented worker. They don’t have to pay him even the minimum wage, they don’t have to pay for health or dental care, they don’t have to pay for insurance (if something happens to that person on the job, they just say they didn’t know and he had no business there), and they can tell him not to come back the next day without worrying about paying him anything for the legal period they’d have to pay a legal worker.
I don’t get how people even want to work illegally, looking at all that! It’s great from the employer’s pov (who wouldn’t want a worker who costs less than half of a legal employee, all things considered) but it’s rotten if you’re on the other side! The employer has you in his power completely – “work more hours, work every day or you won’t have a job tomorrow”, TERRIBLE! I don’t like it at all (been there once, it was supposed to be a “trial period” of a week and after that, they were going to hire me legally but I didn’t get that far).