Illegal aliens who have been working for cash for years in New York are losing their jobs as newly arrived illegals undercut them and will take day jobs for far less money.
Illegals who wait on corners or in big box store parking lots for contractors to drive up and hire them to sling concrete, hang sheetrock, paint, or do other less skilled construction jobs are being run out of the work they have been doing for years after more than 116,000 illegals flooded New York City, the New York Post reported.
Thousands of these more established illegals who do not have legal work permits, but have been working in an underground economy, paying their bills, and making their way, now find their lives threatened by the tidal wave of young, illegal men who were working for pennies on the dollar.
The paper spoke to one illegal who has worked day jobs for cash for 20 years and says he is losing work because what contractors once paid $200 a day to do now pay as little as $40 a day as this wave of illegals swamp his job market.
“If you can get the work cheaper you are going to use those guys. You are not going to pay $200 when you can get [for] $40. Anything you give them, they’ll take it,” the man told the Post.
This latest wave of illegals also enjoys another competitive advantage over the older illegals already here. They are being allowed to stay rent-free in state-run shelters, whereas the older immigrants have to pay for their daily lodging. This is another reason the newly arrived illegals can work for less pay.
Because Democrats are rushing to aid the newly arrived illegals, the illegals of longer standing are also finding that many of the newly arrived are jumping the line and getting fast tracked work permits while the older immigrants go without that benefit.
But even at that rate, the paper found that many of the newly arrived do not bother applying for the work permits because it is easier to work for cash and then go back to their free life in shelters where they pay no rent, utilities, or other living expenses and where they are often fed for free, as well.
The Post’s story is a perfect example of how a massive flood of illegal aliens drives wages down and hurts the economy.
Legislatures in New York and California, for instance, have given driver’s licenses to millions of illegals, an act that had the unintended consequence of driving down the hourly wages of delivery drivers. That, in turn, caused the two states to begin setting government mandated minimum wages for delivery drivers. And that also had consequences that ended up harming the industries for which delivery drivers work.
In New York in 2019, for instance, delivery driver wages began falling as the state issued licenses to illegals. Wages fell to as low as $7 an hour for delivery drivers of app companies such as DoorDash, GrubHub, and others. Hourly wages of $7 to $15 an hour are inadequate for people in one of the country’s most expensive places to live.
So, by 2023, the city passed a new mandate that delivery drivers be paid $18 an hour, or fifty cents a mile, whichever the driver agrees to with his employer.
This solution did not please anyone, though, as drivers saw a crackdown on “dirty apping” and rules that stated they could not take work from more than one company at a time — something many drivers do to supplement their income. Additionally, app companies are seeing their costs for deliveries rise, a cost they will eventually pass onto their customers. Those price hikes in turn will also likely send tips down for drivers.
New York Democrats also slipped a poison pill into the delivery wage rules by not precluding drivers from forming a union. Tech Crunch reported that many jurisdictions that are trying to stabilize driver wages are putting in measures that won’t allow drivers to unionize if they accept the mandated wages. But not New York City. And if drivers do unionize in the future, that will put an all-new level of pressure on the companies.
But while states such New York and California are struggling with falling wages in industries impacted by successive waves of illegals, the state of Florida has seen wages rise after Gov. Ron DeSantis put in place requirements in May that force private employers to use the federal E-Verify system to hire employees.
Unsurprisingly, a coalition of big businesses and left-wing advocacy groups are launching a raft of lawsuits against DeSantis’ law because illegals have streamed out of the Sunshine State due to a dearth of cash-for-work jobs. The advocacy groups are claiming DeSantis is violating the “rights” of illegals by excluding them from the work force and big business is upset that they are having to pay higher wages to get workers among the native workforce.
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