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The article stated that 10-20% of the coffee crops were being left unpicked due to a labor shortage.
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Then the business owner should offer more per hour in order to entice people to pick his coffee. Leave it unpicked and get nothing or pay more and have the product available to sell?
The business owners employ illegals because they will work for far less money than a citizen or legal immigrant, thus taking away jobs and the ones that work for cash enable the business owner to skip out on the various employment taxes.
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Then the business owner should offer more per hour in order to entice people to pick his coffee.
But according to you, if a small business owner is forced to pay his employees a higher wage the following scenarios will take place:
If the minimum wage doubles... how many people on the low end of the job market, will lose their jobs?
Do you think those smaller store owners will simply decide to keep people hired on and take a pay cut for themselves? You do realize that when ever a employee's wages go up, the amount of taxes the business pays on those wages, also rises?
If I understand your argument correctly, you're saying if a small coffee farmer has to pay a higher minimum wage he will go out of business and his workers will lose their jobs. But if the same coffee farmer pays a higher wage of his own free will, with the same expenses, and coffee selling at the same price per pound, the magically effective free market will balance his books and keep his employees working full time? Is that correct?
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Of course you are incorrect.
These are business owners paying illegals, under the minimum wage and "under the table", in cash.
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In this day and age almost no native born Americans are willing to pick anything for any amount of money. Same in Hawaii as in Salinas.
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
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See if this helps you understand.
The business owner employing the illegals, has an unfair advantage over the business owners who only hire those with a legal right to work.
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There are business owners paying illegal workers over the minimum wage too.
Some of these jobs are really, really hard to fill.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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quote:
Originally posted by gypsy69
Hard working immigrants may need to start worrying about their coffee picking day's on the big island being numbered. Looks like ICE officials are taking notes on just how many immigrants are working on these coffee farms.
http://westhawaiitoday.com/news/local-ne...ffee-farms
That's what I voted for!
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To give things a little perspective in my observations, I remember waaay back when I was a carpenters apprentice for a large home builder in Cali.. The sub trades started hiring undocumented workers, intermixed with legals to do the job. About once a month, immigration would do a "slow patrol" through the job site with their blue van. Word would spread, the undocumented would scatter for the rest of the day, van would leave, back to work the next day.
Eventually, the work force still changed to migrant labor, but with documents.
Coffee will still be picked, unless the farmer sees a bigger "write off" in lost crops, as there will always be somebody to fill the shoes at the price the farmer will pay.
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