Shocker: Denying Companies Illegal Labor Forces Wages, Benefits To Rise

As Mark Krikorian says, “Damn you Adam Smith.”

Raids could force meatpackers to raise worker pay
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“I think it is a big problem, a huge issue for companies,” said Lance Compa, a Cornell University professor who has studied workplace Immigration issues.
“What (the companies) are doing now is scrambling. A lot of them are turning to employer agencies to fill their workforce. But if they want a stable workforce, they’ll almost certainly need to raise wages and benefits.”

Now, typically you wouldn’t invoke Adam Smith and his “invisible hand” in an instance where the government is arresting and deporting workers, but in this instance it works. The workers being taken out of the labor pool are illegal workers whose labor was being exploited outside of our tax/labor/citizenship laws. Now, I don’t necessarily agree with all those laws, but that doesn’t mean we can just start ignoring them when they become inconvenient.
If we need to change or labor laws then fine. Let’s change them. If we need to make it easier to legally immigrate into this country (and I think we do) so that businesses here can get the labor they need then fine. Let’s do that. But let’s not just ignore the law.