Making a Connection Between Illegal Immigration and the Minimum Wage

Daniel J.B. Mitchell (UCLA School of Management) has posted this interesting article in today's edition of the Los Angeles Business Journal entitled: Address Illegal Immigration By Increasing the Minimum Wage (via the Labor and Employment Relations Association Listserv; link to full article will be posted later).

Here are some excerpts:

Various proposals have caused a congressional deadlock. Some, particularly in the House, are pushing for a wall extending along the Mexican border and other tough enforcement measures. Others, particularly in the Senate, want some form of amnesty (under a different name) with more enforcement of the approach adopted in the mid-1980s: control at the level of business hiring and employment. Let’s call these two opposing positions Plan A and Plan B.

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Just as the Germans went around the Maginot line, so, too, will illegals go around, through, or under whatever fence is likely to be constructed under Plan A.   

Plan B is essentially a repeat of what was tried in the 1980s. It has a fatal flaw. Businesses can be asked to look at documents such as birth certificates and green cards before hiring. But counterfeits of such documents can easily be printed.

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So is there a Plan C, one that doesn’t give the business community the task of enforcing immigration laws and that won’t cost vast sums and raise civil liberties concerns? Opponents say illegal immigration depresses wages, particularly at the low end of the labor market. So let’s raise the minimum wage – federal and state – to a level that would be consistent with whatever legal immigration we would like to see. Then let’s enforce that wage and collateral labor standards such as provision of workers’ comp, adherence to workplace safety standards, etc.   

Would this policy reduce the number of jobs available? Presumably, it would – but that is what opponents of illegal immigration want. Hamburger flipping, car washing, hotel bed making, apparel production, and strawberry picking would cost more, absent the illegals. There would be fewer such jobs and with fewer jobs on offer, the attraction to enter the U.S. illegally would diminish.   

Interesting idea, but doesn't it assume that employers abide by minimum wage laws in employing illegal immigrants?  And isn't this exactly what they are not doing now, even at the lower minimum wage levels that currently exist?  Also, I'm not so sure about the assumption that raising the minimum wage actually decreases in any substantial way the amounnt of jobs overall in this country.  Finally, I would assume that under this Plan C there would have to be a lot more spent on minimum wage compliance.

PS