Barack Obama Amendment In Senate Immigration Bill Guarantees Higher Pay For "Guest Workers" : Diggers Realm

	Home \| Bio \| Contact \| Follow:

Barack Obama Amendment In Senate Immigration Bill Guarantees Higher Pay For "Guest Workers"

By / July 15, 2006 03:01 AM

Barack Obama attached an amendment to the Senate "comprehensive Immigration Reform" bill that would require "guest workers" be paid more than American workers. According to the bill a foreign worker would be guaranteed to receive a certain minimum whereas the only requirement for an American worker would be that they receive minimum wage.

Washington Times

The Senate immigration bill would require that foreign construction laborers here under the guest-worker program be paid well above the minimum wage, even as American workers at the same work site could earn less.

The bill "would guarantee wages to some foreign workers that could be higher than those paid to American workers at the same work site," says a policy paper released this week by the Senate's Republican Policy Committee. "This is unfair to U.S. workers, inappropriate, and unnecessary."

...

The Davis Bacon Act of 1931 (DBA) requires that the local prevailing wage be paid to all workers employed in federally contracted construction or projects done for the District of Columbia. Those wages -- up to four or five times higher in some fields than the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour -- are set by the Department of Labor.

The Senate's immigration bill would require that the higher wages be paid to foreign temporary workers in all construction occupations, even if the project isn't federally funded and doesn't otherwise fall under DBA.

The attack on American workers continues by those in our federal government. Next they will be saying American workers are racist for complaining about this and telling them to eat cake.

Other Commentary:

Hyscience
Say Anything

Venice Florida Vacation

This entry is in the following archive(s):

Next and Previous Entries:

Posted by Digger on July 15, 2006 03:01 AM (Permalink)

TrackBack URL: http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/mt-saveact.cgi/1763

» Radio Left linked with Obama to Xavier graduating class: Perfect the collective dream

Comments

Well, this comment probably won't stay up long, but while it's here, I'd like to offer 5 things I discovered:

1) The actual text of the Obama amendment to the Immigration Bill:
(C) PREVAILING WAGE LEVEL- For purposes of subparagraph (A)(ii), the prevailing wage level shall be determined in accordance with this subparagraph. If the job opportunity is covered by a collective bargaining agreement between a union and the employer, the prevailing wage shall be the wage rate set forth in the collective bargaining agreement. If the job opportunity is not covered by such an agreement, and it is in an occupation that is covered by a wage determination under a provision of subchapter IV of chapter 31 of title 40, United States Code, or the Service Contract Act of 1965 (41 U.S.C. 351 et seq.), the prevailing wage level shall be the appropriate statutory wage.

2) An amateur interpretation of that senate-ese crap:
Okay, so if an employer hires a guest worker (let's call him Diego) for a job where a union already negotiated wages, they have to pay Diego the same as the union got. Or, if there's no union contract, but the job is something that the government tracks wages for, then Diego has to get paid the official government wage, not what the employer thinks is a "competitive" amount.

3) an ascii drawing of a bull creating this article:

(__)
_ (oo)
/ \-------\/
| ||
* ||----||
* ~~ ~~

4) insight about the amendment:
wait, if employers have to pay prevailing wages to guest workers, won't that take away some of the incentive to bring guest workers into the country?

5) a motivational book for people too lazy to actually research things that are important to them, like, oh, I don't know, immigrant legislation:

Corps Values

Posted by: boredat work on July 26, 2006 02:28 PM

Also see these other great immigration resources
The Dark Side Of Illegal Immigration A 28 part detailed report on the negative impacts of illegal immigration.	Immigration Stance Find out how your members of Congress voted on immigration issues.