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How ICE Picks Its Targets in the Surveillance Age:
The winter after Donald Trump was elected president, strangers began appearing in a parking lot on southern Washington State's Long Beach Peninsula, at the port where the oyster boats come and go. Rather than gaze at the bay or the boats or the building-size piles of bleached shells, two men — one thinner, one thicker — stared at the shellfish workers. The strangers sat in their vehicle and watched the workers arrive in their trucks. They watched the workers grab their gear and walk to the docks. The workers watched them watching, too, and they soon began to realize that the men were from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. When the workers made eye contact, the officers nodded politely, but they said very little. For weeks, they just watched. Then the workers began to vanish.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday October 09 2019, @07:58AM (1 child)
I actually worked this out once, back around 1995ish... for one part-time minimum-wage employee, fully legal, $7500 in wages magically became $24,000 in total costs once everything mandated by the state was added. Since this exceeded my gross, needless to say it didn't happen.
About ten years back CA announced intention to increase one or another (I forget if it was workmans comp or what) of these employer obligations, and Costco threw a fit about it, threatened to pull out of the state entirely -- per their figures, 70% of the cost of each employee was state-mandated -- benefits, insurance, payroll tax, comp, they had a whole list with numbers for each. [At the time Costco's starting wage was $10/hour.] Someone on Another Forum[TM] just posted similar numbers for their business. So there ya go.
It probably becomes less painful as you go up the ladder to higher wages, or to salaries instead of hourly -- I expect by that point employee take-home outweighs relatively fixed costs like medical coverage and insurance. But it's very different down in the low-rent trenches, and it's no mystery why illegal labor is popular for low-end jobs -- otherwise the value of those employees simply can't offset the cost to employ them.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @01:18PM
Holy shit is that weak-ass response. Tons of hand-waving — zero evidence. You are a fool.