The competitiveness of U.S. agriculture. especially in the fruit. vegetable and horticultural specialty sectors. depends on the continued availability of hired labor at a reasonable cost. U.S. farmers. including producers of laborintensive perishable commodities. compete directly with producers in other countries for market share in both U.S. and foreign commodity markets. Wages of U.S. farmworkers will not be forced up by eliminating alien labor. because growers production costs are capped by world market commodity prices. Instead. a reduction in the work force available to agriculture will force U.S. producers to reduce production to the level that can be sustained by a smaller work force. Over time. wages for these farm workers have actually risen faster than nonfarm worker wages.
Keywords matched
alien labor