Hiring day laborers [Archive] - Two Plus Two Older Archives

Tyler Durden

11-15-2005, 05:28 PM

Two weeks ago my house needed some yard work done. So my roommates and I did it but then didn't want to do the cleanup. We live in Arlington, VA where there is a heavy Hispanic/Latino population. So we drove to a nearby place where a lot of these men hang out waiting for day jobs. We got there and two guys sitting on the curb noticed what we were trying to do so we got out and talked to them. All the others swarmed our car within 15 seconds and we had like 15 of these guys talking fast and tugging on our arms all trying to get hired for the work. Luckily my roommate speaks fluent Spanish b/c his parents are Peruvian. Anyway we got two guys for one hour for a total of $40.

Then we went outside to take them back and they said they worked for more than an hour and wanted more money. So we gave them $50. They might have been ripping us off but it's alright b/c they're dirt poor and we were going to tip them anyway and situations like this really make you realize how much you have and what other ppl live like.

As an aside, what do ppl think about the ethical/moral repurcussions of what we did? I mean hiring illegal immigrants. Were we just exacerbating the problem?

Now whenever we have an issue in the house like "what's with all the dishes in the sink?" someone answers with "none of us want to clean all that, let's get some day workers." just as a joke. we all find it funny. well i do.

jba

11-15-2005, 05:30 PM

standard.

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As an aside, what do ppl think about the ethical/moral repurcussions of what we did?

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you had work to do plus some money, they wanted work and money. What could possibly be immoral/unethical? [censored] the Man.

tonypaladino

11-15-2005, 05:32 PM

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standard

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beset7

11-15-2005, 05:34 PM

You paid them a reasonable hourly rate so its all good.

You were violating the Immigration Reform and Control Act by hiring them but its the most enforced useless federal statutory scheme ever, and that's saying a lot.

chuddo

11-15-2005, 05:38 PM

it is not like you shot paintballs at them from the roof while they worked. no ethical hangups for me.

maybe they could be hired to do crimson challenges in the future.

Tyler Durden

11-15-2005, 05:40 PM

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it is not like you shot paintballs at them from the roof while they worked.

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yea you're right. damn maybe next time.

11-15-2005, 05:57 PM

You ended up paying these guys $25 each for 1 hour of work?

Terrible business decision.

The point of getting day-laborers is to get cheap labor. Hell, you could have gotten American-born college students to do this work for $25 an hour. It just all seems rather pointless.

miajag81

11-15-2005, 06:27 PM

I'd have paid them less.

moondogg

11-15-2005, 06:31 PM

[ QUOTE ]
You ended up paying these guys $25 each for 1 hour of work?

Terrible business decision.

The point of getting day-laborers is to get cheap labor. Hell, you could have gotten American-born college students to do this work for $25 an hour. It just all seems rather pointless.

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9 out of 10 American-born college kids will do a crappy job.

ethan

11-15-2005, 06:39 PM

For what it's worth, the going rate is probably closer to $25/day/person. (Los Angeles has designated spots downtown where day layborers are supposed to wait, and I used to live 2 blocks from one.) They got decent money, your yard work's done, and everyone's happy.

slickpoppa

11-15-2005, 06:40 PM

[ QUOTE ]
For what it's worth, the going rate is probably closer to $25/day/person. (Los Angeles has designated spots downtown where day layborers are supposed to wait, and I used to live 2 blocks from one.) They got decent money, your yard work's done, and everyone's happy.

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You kidding? Thats like $3 an hour

mikeyp

11-15-2005, 06:42 PM

ethan

11-15-2005, 06:43 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For what it's worth, the going rate is probably closer to $25/day/person. (Los Angeles has designated spots downtown where day layborers are supposed to wait, and I used to live 2 blocks from one.) They got decent money, your yard work's done, and everyone's happy.

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You kidding? Thats like $3 an hour

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Absolutely serious. And sweatshops pay less. Life as an illegal immigrant isn't all that great.

edit - a "day" may not be 8 hours...it could be more like 4-6. But these people are not well-paid for doing work that's physically very demanding.

SackUp

11-15-2005, 06:45 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For what it's worth, the going rate is probably closer to $25/day/person. (Los Angeles has designated spots downtown where day layborers are supposed to wait, and I used to live 2 blocks from one.) They got decent money, your yard work's done, and everyone's happy.

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You mean $25/hour/person right???

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$25/hour is WAY too much. You can hire people from a legitimate Temporary higher place for way cheaper. Only catch with them is that you typically have to pay for 4 hours minimum.

There is no way that laborers should be getting much more than minimum wage. It just is not a skilled position.

With that said, if you feel like paying more than so be it, but I really do not think it is standard by any means.

Brainwalter

11-15-2005, 06:46 PM

mikeyp

11-15-2005, 06:47 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For what it's worth, the going rate is probably closer to $25/day/person. (Los Angeles has designated spots downtown where day layborers are supposed to wait, and I used to live 2 blocks from one.) They got decent money, your yard work's done, and everyone's happy.

[/ QUOTE ]

You mean $25/hour/person right???

[/ QUOTE ]

$25/hour is WAY too much. You can hire people from a legitimate Temporary higher place for way cheaper. Only catch with them is that you typically have to pay for 4 hours minimum.

There is no way that laborers should be getting much more than minimum wage. It just is not a skilled position.

With that said, if you feel like paying more than so be it, but I really do not think it is standard by any means.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am not saying that I would pay them $25 an hour, I just thought that 25/day/person was some sort of typo.

JimGil

11-15-2005, 06:57 PM

On the east coast (NJ) the typical wage for day laborers is $10/hr. I used them to move from my apt into my house. I had 2 guys help me out for 8 hours and I gave them each $100 plus water and a chicken parm hero - they worked hard so I gave a $20 tip - for which they were very greatful.

As far as the ethics go, my wife was a little "concerned" about hiring illegal workers, but the quotes I got for moving were over $1,000 - between the workers and the truck it cost me $300 - and everyone walked away happy.

PanchoVilla

11-15-2005, 07:14 PM

My wife had an internship at St Joseph's where they have a store that sell donated items and a day laborer center. So we used them when we moved. It worked great for us and it has advantages over the "drive to home depot and pick 3 random guys" method.

You can schedule it. We told them we needed 3 people, on who spoke at least passable english, for moving for 6 hours and were paying $15 an hour. They scheduled 3 people and when they were waiting when we got there.

If anything happenned, at least someone knows who they are. Ie they aren't random guys who just escaped prison in some other country.
These guys worked hard. I figured on 6 hours with 4 of us moving. We were done in under 4. I ended up paying them for the whole 6 hours anyway. They made the move much easier.

Just be aware that the money you save has a price. You are underwriting your own damage risk. /images/graemlins/smile.gif I had a friend do the same thing and a glass tabletop got broken. If day laborers break it, well looks like you didn't save much money this time. I always made sure I took care of moving the TV and computers, etc.

So see if your local salvation army, goodwill type organization has a day laborer center if you don't have any starving college kids to have do it.

Pancho

asofel

11-15-2005, 07:17 PM

I thought this was going to be a gimmick account post at first...turned out much better. well said.

11-15-2005, 07:28 PM

[insert rampant racism here]

bwana devil

11-15-2005, 07:35 PM

ive done this before as well. i needed to paint a rental house. pulled up to home depot where the illegals hang out and got SWARMED by the guys. they jumped in my car. i had to start yelling at them to get out.

i picked one guy and paid him $10/hr. i figured that was too much but when we got to the house he busted his hump. i gave him a tip and bought him lunch. he was happy as could be and so was i.

bwana devil

11-15-2005, 07:37 PM

deleted quoted response to banned user

Warik

11-15-2005, 07:53 PM

Can't we think of taking advantage of the reduced laborer wage as a way to make up for the fact that Uncle Sam is taking our money and not doing anything about the problem?

-- deleted quoted response to banned user

11-15-2005, 07:59 PM

[insert more rampant racism here]

LAGmaniac

11-15-2005, 08:08 PM

The proper way to hire day laborers (http://www.theamazingracist.net/subpage1.html)

benza13

11-15-2005, 08:26 PM

[ QUOTE ]
maybe they could be hired to do crimson challenges in the future.

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This could get interesting.

Another thing to remember with day laborers, they aren't going to have health insurance, so you are assuming some risks with injury as well. A few years back I was working as a landscaper for the summe rand we'd always talk with the other crews at the gas station in the morning. One morning one of the other guys was obviously distracted, turns out one of his (illegal) day laborers dropped the gate of the truck down and ripped off a couple fingers. The guy who hired him had to just drop him at the hospital and hope he would be able to get cared for. Too much liability if he actually waited around to make sure the guy was ok. I stopped working at that job before I ever heard anything else about it.