American Workers Lose As Russia Invades the Jersey Shore

A young Russian woman capably sat my family at an Ocean City, New Jersey restaurant during our recent vacation.  A day later I saw the same person working at a souvenir store on the boardwalk.  Interesting that a time when many people can’t find one job, she has two.

Several phenomena could be at work here, none of them good for the American worker.  First, this worker no doubt would prefer to have one full-time job.   She isn’t alone.  According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there were about 8.5 million so-called “involuntary part-time” workers in July, little changed from June. Employers are squeezing these workers hard as the average workweek for all employees on private non-farm payrolls increased by 0.1 hour to 34.2 hours.  For companies, the appeal of part-timers are numerous because they can be work for practically the same amount of time as full-timers without the cost of benefits.

The other reason why foreign workers are attractive to employers on the Jersey Shore is that they are cheap to hire and easy for unscrupulous firms to control through threats and intimidation that most American workers would not tolerate.   These foreign workers are in the U.S. legally through the H2B federal visa program which allows 66,000 workers in during each fiscal year. Typically, these jobs paid about $9 an hour at landscapers and lawn care services though as the Press of Atlantic City noted earlier this year some paid much better.

But not all jobs paid as low: A Cape May Court House painting company needed painters to work for almost 10 months at $14.34 per hour; soccer camps throughout the state hired head coaches, instructors and trainers for as much as $25 per hour; stable attendants at a horse farm in Monmouth County were employed for $11.22 per hour; and a scallop boat operation in Barnegat Light, Ocean County, requesting five production helpers, paid an hourly rate of $15.10.

Several reasons are usually offered by companies as to why they hire foreigners, none of which is compelling.  One is that they take dirty and unpleasant jobs such as working on a scallop boat that Americans don’t want.  That may be true to some extent but I bet there are many American citizens who would eagerly take one of those jobs if they were faced with starvation or becoming homeless.  Many unemployed Americans would love to be a host or hostess at a nice restaurant.

The other lame excuse is that Americans want permanent and not temporary jobs.  Again, that’s partially true but with unemployment at 9.5 percent people are eager for a paycheck even a temporary one.  Employers also argue that foreign workers have better work habits than their U.S. counterparts, a notion that I have never seen backed up by evidence.

Not only is this situation bad for the American worker, it’s bad for foreigners too.  Even an economically hobbled United States probably is paradise compared to their homelands.  The worker I saw probably is earning more money in Ocean City than she ever could hope to receive in Russia.  Indeed, there were plenty of other Russians working at jobs that Americans would want even for the summer. Employers have these people over a barrel and they know it.  As the Southern Poverty Law Center noted last year ” workers are often pushed into debt by large fees charged by labor brokers, and they are routinely cheated out of wages and subjected to abusive work conditions.”

We cannot shut our borders to foreign labor entirely or the U.S. economy would grind to a halt.  A balance must be struck between giving Americans a fair shake in the worst economy since the Great Depression and protecting the rights of those vulnerable to abuse.

After all, it’s the American way.

Jon Berr