Wage Law

Mexican president Vicente Fox has stirred up a hornet's nest. Fox initially refused to apologize yesterday for saying Mexicans in the U.S. do the work that "even blacks" won't do. The exact quote, if the Spanish translators aren't leading me astray, was this:

"There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work, are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States."

Fox's spokeshole, Ruben Aguilar, said the remark has been misinterpreted, and that Fox was only defending Mexican migrants from new attacks as certain factions in the U.S. attempt to crack down on illegal immigrants. After Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton raised a fuss and demanded an apology, Fox reconsidered and apologized Monday night.

I enjoyed the controversy, and I was glad Fox said it, not because it was true, but precisely because it was not true. And it was a lie that needs to be exposed. And nothing gets exposure like a racially insensitive remark.

While there are some jobs -- particularly agricultural jobs -- that Americans do not like to do for the wages offered, it is a myth that illegal aliens are taking only those jobs that Americans (black, white or otherwise) consider to be "beneath them." Most of the jobs that they take are the jobs in which employers want to exploit a labor pool that does not understand its rights, or is afraid to enforce those rights.

One of the most common fact patterns we encounter is the illegal alien getting paid a fraction of the prevailing wage on public works construction projects. How much are those jobs supposed to pay? If you guessed $10 per hour, you would be very low. But if you were a hispanic man without a green card or a social security number, and you guessed $10, you would be hired immediately.

The "prevailing wage" for most low end construction jobs pays in the $32-$35 range. With overtime, prevailing wage earners can easily make $75,000 per year. That's a better wage than most opening salaries for college graduates. Are these jobs that "even blacks won't do?" Sure, if those happen to be blacks with degrees in law, medicine, accounting or engineering. However, lesser educated and unemployed Americans of any color might consider swinging a hammer for $33 per hour.

Of course, those American workers might still complain if their employer made them kick back two-thirds of their wages in cash; or made them work off the clock; or committed others among the myriad of wage and hour violations that creative employers try. Undocumented workers who are paranoid about being deported, on the other hand, might be willing to sign over a $33/hour paycheck in exchange for $400 in cash, even if they have to work 60 hours a week to earn it.

It isn't about the race of the worker. It's about the willingness to be exploited, illegally, by an employer. And no, American blacks are not thrilled to be criminally exploited by corrupt employers. Nor are Asian Americans. Nor are white Americans. But illegal aliens are willing to be exploited, because many of them come from places where the best opportunities are not as good as the opportunity to be exploited by a lawbreaking California construction firm.

If it takes a racist comment by Mexico's president to draw attention to that fact, so be it.