New York Times: Mandatory E-Verify Raises Wages for Florida Workers

Despite having only been in effect for a month, Florida’s mandatory E-Verify law — which requires employers to hire legal immigrants and American citizens — has already raised wages in working class jobs in the state, the New York Times admits.

As Breitbart News reported in May, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) made Florida the largest state in the nation to require all employers with 25 or more employees to screen its workforce through the federal government’s E-Verify system — ensuring that all new hires are legally residing in the United States.

Mandatory E-Verify in Florida took effect July 1.

In a piece where business executives complained that they cannot operate without hiring illegal aliens, the New York Times admits that the law has already helped boost wages for working class Americans who are the most likely to compete against illegal aliens for jobs.

The Times reported:

Tim Conlan, president of Reliant, a roofing company in Jacksonville, said a subcontractor had recently turned down a project after his workers refused to travel to Florida, preferring to stay in Georgia and the Carolinas. He also said that hourly rates for jobs had increased about 10 percent since the bill was signed into law in May. [Emphasis added]

In February 2020, tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us drafted a report that seemingly admitted that mandatory E-Verify in Florida would likely prod employers to raise wages so as to attract a legal workforce.

Though the Wall Street Journal has claimed that Florida already has a severe labor shortage and businesses cannot afford not to hire illegal aliens, wages across blue-collar industries in the state show no signs of a labor shortage or even a tight labor market for that matter.

For years, analysis of the federal government’s labor data has proven that there are no jobs Americans will not do. Of the 474 occupations tracked by the Commerce Department, just six are dominated by foreign workers.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.