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I live in a town where most low-paying jobs are given to hispanics willing to work long hours for a below minimum wage. How does a mere high school graduate compete with these experienced and cheap workers? I would like a wage that is at least minimum wage because community college expenses have to be paid for somehow...
Have you even tried?
I ask this because my husband has gotten a job working in an orchard picking fruit - why? BECAUSE IT'S WHAT HE WANTS TO DO! Yes, all of the other workers are hispanic but he doesn't care. When he got his job, he went up to the owner of the property and told him that he wanted a job. He got it with no questions asked.
And no, he does not make minimum wage, he makes $8 per hour (and all the peaches he can nom) lol. He was offered either an hourly job or piece work (as were the other workers), and NO he is not eligible for overtime but he can work 12 hours a day straight time if he wants to, so the opportunity to make pretty fair money is there.
My point being. Have you TRIED to get a job or do you just assume that because you are not hispanic, you won't get it?
My point being. Have you TRIED to get a job or do you just assume that because you are not hispanic, you won't get it?
20yrsinBranson
I'd get the job but it's about a dollar under the minimum wage, which I am reluctant in taking it because my employer won't file social security taxes for me.
I live in a town where most low-paying jobs are given to hispanics willing to work long hours for a below minimum wage. How does a mere high school graduate compete with these experienced and cheap workers? I would like a wage that is at least minimum wage because community college expenses have to be paid for somehow...
What..I take this post somewhat racist. My brother inlaw works with hispanics just like himself and they dont get paid less. Where do you get cheap workers? Im hispanic and yes I was born here in the U.S. and I make just as much as my co-workers make doing the same job. We are very experienced in what we do. Maybe you need to start looking harder for a job and stop blaming others why you dont have one..
What..I take this post somewhat racist. My brother inlaw works with hispanics just like himself and they dont get paid less. Where do you get cheap workers? Im hispanic and yes I was born here in the U.S. and I make just as much as my co-workers make doing the same job. We are very experienced in what we do. Maybe you need to start looking harder for a job and stop blaming others why you dont have one..
You get cheap workers from having a low cost of living plus illegitimate Hispanics plus cheap businesses who want to save a buck to make extra money. There are legitimate Hispanics in this town with pretty high positions, but it's illegals who fear deportation and don't have a right to work here that work for these wages.
I'm not blaming others, I just want to know how to compete with them.
Plus, I can get a job it's just that it is going to be at a low wage.
I'd get the job but it's about a dollar under the minimum wage, which I am reluctant in taking it because my employer won't file social security taxes for me.
Employers are required to pay minimum wage unless it is contract labor or piecework. If this is a position that pays wages, he cannot legally pay less than minimum wage. If this is truly happening, you need to report him to the department of labor, immediately.
Where my husband works, when they are thinning peaches, they pay $4 per tree. Theoretically, you should be able to make minimum wage (or more), if you work steady. In the past, I have worked piece work where I was paid $50 to clean a condo. Now, if it took me 5 hours, I would make $10 per hour but if it took me 8 hours I wouldn't make minimum wage. It was all up to me.
You get cheap workers from having a low cost of living plus illegitimate Hispanics plus cheap businesses who want to save a buck to make extra money. There are legitimate Hispanics in this town with pretty high positions, but it's illegals who fear deportation and don't have a right to work here that work for these wages.
I'm not blaming others, I just want to know how to compete with them.
Plus, I can get a job it's just that it is going to be at a low wage.
Well if you want to learn how to compete with me since I am hispanic..I went to college got my degree in computer engineering, software engineering, I work for a reptable company that hired me for my degree, skills, talent and my competence to do the job. Maybe you should not be looking for a job at companies who dont look for background credentials.
Its called education. Dont know what town your in and you seem very uneducated. So go ahead and compete against me, Im a tough competion tho. Thank god you are able to get a job..
Its called education. Dont know what town your in and you seem very uneducated. So go ahead and compete against me, Im a tough competion tho. Thank god you are able to get a job..
Of course I am uneducated. I just graduated high school and I am looking for an income to put me through community college.
Of course I am uneducated. I just graduated high school and I am looking for an income to put me through community college.
My my.. Im sure you will qualify for financial aid..rake yards, shovel side walks, mow lawns, mc donalds, kfc,...Arent you a funny kid, I did it with kids, college fulltime, work fulltime and being a single parent, My daugher went to college and also worked fulltime, my son had a kid at 17 he is working and also going to college his girlfriend the babys mom also just graduated highschool and is on her way to college. Your best bet is to get a degree in something you love and focus on that. Dont worry about what others worry about whats going to get you the job. Talk to a financial advisor at your community college, Im sure they will have a way for you to attend college. Grants, scholarships ect...
My my.. Im sure you will qualify for financial aid..rake yards, shovel side walks, mow lawns, mc donalds, kfc,...Arent you a funny kid, I did it with kids, college fulltime, work fulltime and being a single parent,
Many of those jobs you depended on, such as being a waiter at Starbucks, are now held by MBA's and recent BA graduates from college.
Your government and elected representatives are giving you the big one and you be liking it because you voted them in and you'll vote them in again.
First there is the lie that most Americans have bought into and that is illegals do the jobs Americans won't do. This is a mile high pile of BS because reality is illegals do not take jobs Americans won't do they create jobs Americans can not afford to do.
I've worked in commercial construction as part of project management for 35 years. Projects I have worked on have ranged from lows of a couple hundred thousand to one that was $350 million.
In 1985 a young man in Ohio, a young man such as yourself, right out of high school without experience could go get a construction job hanging drywall for $10 to $14 an hour. To put it in perspective with inflation what cost $10.00 in 1985 would cost $19.67 in 2009. What cost $14.00 in 1985 would cost $27.54 in 2009.
Ask yourself how would you like a job paying $19.67 an hour right about now? Would that be a job taken by an illegal only because an American kid such as yourself would refuse to do it? That's what your government tells us. Would you hang drywall for $19.57 an hour like your dad did in 1985 because everyone is tell us you wouldn't. Everyone is parroting the idea that a hard job like hanging drywall is isn't a job a kid like you would do for $19.57 an hour. That's not even $800 a week and I am sure you wouldn't want to work for that.
How valuable do you suppose a job would be in Ohio that paid between $19.26 and $27,54 an hour right about now? Think they would have anyone applying?
It was hard work, nearly backbreaking often working in filthy, dusty and hot conditions but it was honest work a 20 year old male could do to make the equivalent of $800 to $1,200 a week in terms of today's dollars.
I noticed my first illegals in 1998 working on a job hanging drywall off on the lake shore right outside of Sandusky, Ohio. I found it odd that from a team of 20 people not a single one could speak English.
For five years I watched as the published prevailing wage rates for drywall installers drop year after year after year.
I was on one job four years ago that at the height had 800 workers and I kid you not 500 were here illegally because they didn't know any English. I here the libs "it's stereotyping racism!" but if it quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck there is a high probability it is a duck. It was exceptionally hot work think of southern Alabama in July. The conditions were horrid and it was all I could do to leave my air conditioned job trailer.
The average pay for these workers was $9.00 an hour in 2007 dollars and the highest paid foreman received $12.00. Compare $9.00 an hour in 2007 to $9.00 in 1985.
If you were to buy exactly the same products in 2007 and 1985, they would cost you $9.00 and $4.69 respectively.
What we have is illegals taking jobs for wages Americans can not afford to work for. I wouldn't work that hard for $9.00 an hour because if you haven't carried 8'x4' sheets of 5/8" drywall up three flights of stairs when it is 90 degrees with 99% humidity you don't know what hard work is.
I don't blame a young man for saying screw it to $9.00 to do that work but perhaps if the pay was $25.00 he might be enticed to sell his soul and work hard. You figure?
Most illegals work for a job boss and you wouldn't believe the number of times I have spotted them bedding down inside the project... sleeping bags in any corner of the unfinished building. Work from first sunlight to sun down cutting living costs any which way they can to send the maximum back to Mexico.
I don't blame the Mexicans, if I were one given the conditions in Mexico, I would try to go north as well.
Most of those I have met have been good, honest and hard working people. I respect them. Some are the nicest people you would want to know.
But they are here illegally, they are depressing wages and they are hurting the hell out of our children. Of course the project owners want to pay the lowest price possible and while they don't do the direct hiring the sub-contractors do and there they do not have control.
The people really getting screwed by all this are your young men... perhaps a son who would love to have a job making $24.00 an hour but he isn't about to drive his car 85 miles each way five days a week for $9.00. But I bet there are a number of 22 year old men who would drive 85 miles each way five days a week if the job paid $25.00 an hour.
Since the 90's illegals have moved from drywall into general carpentry (framing), concrete work, landscaping and there are even a few that are moving into electrical which is interesting.
A couple years ago there was a series of raids conducted at several Iowa meat packing plants. After the raids cleared out the illegals they were replaced by American workers with the raided companies reporting wages increased $2.00 an hour in order to attract American workers. Maybe $2.00 an hour isn't much for someone like you or me but but for a young man trying to raise a young family the difference between $10.00 and $12.00 can mean a heck of a lot.
The entire idea "illegals only take jobs Americans won't do" is just a stupid way of thinking. It really pisses me off because an American will do any job if wages are right. If a help wanted ad appeared in Sunday's paper reading "100 men wanted to hang drywall, no experience necessary, high school diploma not required, pay is $27.00 per hour to start but it is hard, hot, backbreaking work" I am willing to bet we'd see thousands show up to apply.
You've never been on a construction site, have you?
It's not just construction. Ever hear of Oshkosh? They make cranes, manlifts, wreckers, rollbacks, assemble MRAPS vehicles etc etc. I was doing work in one of their wrecker plants doing a job as a contractor one day when all of a sudden the guys phone rings in the office I am working in, and he says a couple words and runs out. He's back in 10 mins or so, and I asked what happend that he ran out so fast? Oh, they thought one of my Mexicans was hurt, but it turns out it was just too much Tequila last night.
He went on to explain that the plant had supervisors whose job it was to translate for the Mexicans, as they didn't speak English, and someone needed to be able to give them instructions and talk to them when injured etc. The Mexicans had a crew leader who dealt with the Oshkosh supervisor and then ran the Mexicans. He explained (as posted earlier) they worked like dogs for less than half the pay of us americans. The only problem was most didn't show up Monday because of hangovers from all weekend drinking. I asked how they dealt with that, did they fire them or what? He explained they didn't care because they just didn't pay them for Monday and they still got 40 hours work or more out of them in 4 days.
This is not the only manafacturer I have seen this in, and as the OP stated, it is really bad in constuction.
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