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Monday, January 07, 2019

Study: Blue-Collar U.S. Wages Continue to be Undercut by Foreign Labor

The H-2B visa program, whereby businesses are allowed to import foreign workers every year, has dragged down the wages of blue-collar Americans, a new study reveals.

Every year, U.S. companies are allowed to import 66,000 low-skilled H-2B foreign workers to take blue-collar, non-agricultural jobs. For some time, the H-2B visa program has been used by businesses to bring in cheaper, foreign workers and has contributed to blue-collar Americans having their wages undercut.

The latest study by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finds that throughout Fiscal Year 2018, blue-collar Americans in landscaping, conservation work, the meatpacking industry, construction industry, and fishing jobs have had their wages dragged down by foreign workers imported through the H-2B visa program.

In the construction industry, wage suppression is significant, with H-2B foreign workers being offered more than 20 percent less than their American counterparts. In the fishing industry, foreign workers were offered more than 30 percent less for their jobs than Americans in the field; and in the meatpacking industry, foreign workers got 23 percent less pay in wages than Americans.

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2 comments:

Wolf Dog said...

Exactly why corporate America likes immigrants, and not the wall. Cheap labor means more money for the greedy executives. Keeps everyone hungery so that they are forced to work for less.

Anonymous said...

Let's not forget the H1B's getting IT jobs here, and making a fraction of what American workers would be paid.