What do you think - Wages fall as immigration grows - Drop in pay greater for Hispanics than others?

As South Carolina's Hispanic population has grown, one measurement of wages for all workers has dropped, a University of South Carolina study released last week found.





While study authors would not attribute all of the drop to immigration, their findings were similar to research done elsewhere.





The S.C. median annual wage, adjusted for inflation, dropped 3.1 percent to $28,039 between 2000 and 2005, a period when the state experienced rapid growth in its Hispanic population. The median is the midpoint at which half of all salaries would be above that figure and half below.





Pay in construction, the dominant field for Hispanics, slipped 5 percent for all S.C. workers during what was a record housing boom. Construction wages for Hispanics fell by more than twice that.





"When an industry is booming like this, you expect to see wages increase, not decline like this," said Doug Woodward, a research economist at the USC Moore School of Business. Woodward wrote the study with Elaine Lacy of the USC Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies.





Woodward said the study supported the notion that Hispanic workers were willing to take less desirable jobs, such as slaughtering chickens or roofing during hot S.C. summers, for lower wages.





"What we're doing here in South Carolina is importing cheap labor to our economy," Woodward said.





However, Woodward did not tie the wage decrease to the Hispanic population, which makes up 3.3 percent of S.C.'s 4.1 million residents. He also cited the state's higher-than-average level of workers who do not have a high school or college diploma.





The report, based on surveys of 503 Hispanics and examination of federal and S.C. population data, is the first comprehensive examination of the state's fastest-growing population. http://www.charlotte.com/280/story/26080...





Wait a minute, I thought they were all here to pick vegetables. Since when are construction and landscaping and poultry processing “jobs Americans won’t do”???? Sure, Americans won’t do them for $5 an hour with no benefits, but all of these jobs used to be filled by Americans making decent wages.

What do you think - Wages fall as immigration grows - Drop in pay greater for Hispanics than others?
Unfortunately, as illegals come here with "cheap" labor....Cheap actually by no means as they are having baby's right and left, getting food stamps and hospital and medical care at the tax payer expense...it defiantly takes away from those that actually have to pay for public benefits thru taxes...Why do you think people are upset?
Reply:less education





people at the bottom feel the hurt first, due to slow in the economy!!!
Reply:processing plants should be making $20 or more an hour. farm workers should be making $10.00 or more an hour. because of the illegals wages will stay down. we can't expect them to care, they have 3 agendas on their list. come here and have kids, take our jobs and money. and take over America. we hear this everyday how they are going to kill off Americans and take OUR country.
Reply:Pretty soon we'll all be working twelve hours a day to earn two onions.
Reply:Sony are you finally seeing the real picture here,LOL? Yes it does drive wages down.For both citizens and non. That's the beauty of slave labor.Poor people are SOOO much easier to control than wealthy or even those who don't have to depend on government benefits.Would you speak out against our government if you depended on them to eat that day?No you wouldn't.We need a majority of poor according to the government.So we import slave labor to drive wages down.Don't hate the players of the game Sony hate the game makers.They are the ones you should be yelling about.
Reply:Of course they drop... and will continue to do so until the illegals are all deported. It is ricidulous the the legal citizens have to take cuts in pay because of them. Many of these illegals are in unions... another slap in the face.
Reply:It isn't brain surgery. Excess labor supply = drop in labor price.
Reply:When you ask a question you should let us answer it. You took my answer word for word.
Reply:Most are not here to pick vegetables. Most are here to get to suck the U.S. Government teat for free food stamps, free housing, free medical care and free education. They will eventually turn the U.S. into another Mexico. And if you have ever been there outside of a swanky resort, you know what I'm talking about. Pissing right in the streets squatting over a pipe.
Reply:Yes. Correct. I couldn't have said it better myself. So I won't.