Hiring day laborers

[Tyler Durden]

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]

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]

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standard

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[beset7]

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]

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]

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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.

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]

I'd have paid them less.

[moondogg]

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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]

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.