Until employers are penalized for employing illegals, those of us who would like to employ citizens can’t.

I guess I just repeated your point in my 62, sorry

If I hire an American citizen with a take home pay of $10 per hour I pay $30 per hour– after withholdings workman’s comp and a $5/hour allowance for lawsuits.

the solution to undocumented workers in this country is simple and doesn’t cost a penny;

jail employers who don’t document their workers

bing, problem solved

I employ people in construction & forestry.

If I hire an American citizen with a take home pay of $10 per hour I pay $30 per hour– after withholdings workman’s comp and a $5/hour allowance for lawsuits.

If I hire an illegal, for $10/hour I pay $12/ hour. They won’t sue or claim benefits.

I’m not willing to take that route so I did away with employees & contract everything out. But the end result isn’t much different.

Until employers are penalized for employing illegals, those of us who would like to employ citizens can’t.

Someone needs to send a memo: “It was just a fucking movie!”

Thanks for all the intelligent (and provocative) questions and comments.

I’m terribly sorry that I couldn’t answer every comment and question. I can’t remember when I ever typed so many words ove a two-hour stretch.

For those who want more information on my book, I invite you to look at my web site stevengreenhouse.com There’s a pdf of my first chapter

Keep up the great work.

Let’s all hope for an end to The Big Squeeze

“when industry or any company pays so little a family man has to use public assistance in providing healthy food for their wife and kids, that industry is stealing from me because I am the one paying that public assistance bill, I am and you are.

when an industry pays so little the laborers can’t afford health care, then when that persons kid goes to the emergency room to fix his arm, I pay that bill and that is stealing

when industry pays so little a man goes bankrupt if his wife gets sick, I am the one paying that bill, me and you and that’s stealing”

bing

a business has an obligation to pay it’s own bills, it cannot defer the expenses of their labor force to you and me, that’s stealing and that’s the way this discussion needs to be framed if we are to win the war if words

I wish more of the workers would actually speak up and support the union to get them higher wages. Unfortunately the turnover is insanely quick in most of the stores. Aside from the older pharm techs, they can’t keep cashiers much at all. I was hired in as a pharmacy cashier and the nasty trick they played on me was to keep me at cashier wages even though i haven’t been a cashier for well over 2 years and running now.

Still looking for a better employer, but that’s just one example that i’m sure you’ve got paralleled somewhere in your book, i’d bet.