Mexico and Minimum Wage
The dedication for my new book JACKED reads:
To my father who moved to Mexico after Bush was re-elected.
Dad has conviction. And foresight. I just returned from spending a week a few hours from his home, at a town called Punta Mita. The beach was beautiful, weather terrific and food tastefully lacking US preservatives.
The flight back through Mexico City began with the confiscation of my MAC eye-concealer, a cream-colored receptacle, the size of an index finger - which made it safer for everyone. It ended with a lengthy wait at US Immigration (a welcoming place with signs telling anyone who doesn't belong - please have your fingerprints ready, next to signs saying 'keeping our borders open, and our nation secure.') The 49-year old Pakistani man in front of me was carted off somewhere by 3 armed homeland security people, his crime as far as I could overhear, was being a 49-year old Pakistani man flying in from Mexico.
While in Mexico, as with my US trips researching JACKED, I spoke with a couple taxi drivers who know the real deal about what's going on. Their stories tell the other side of illegal immigration and sad wages.
One, Arturo, is a 30 year old man with a young daughter who was born in Salt Lake City. For several years, he worked construction there at $15 an hour, paid taxes on it. Minimum wage in Mexico is $5 - a day; the price of a McDonalds' Big Mac / Fries and a Coke. 18 months ago, US immigration arbitrarily told him he had three months to leave the country. They offered him an appointment at the US offices in Guadalajara to readdress his status. Two years later. He left with his family and now, has 6 months left until that meeting. He couldn't find a buyer for the house he bought in Salt Lake City in time, so his bank offered to take him out of his mortgage and keep the appreciation value - unless he returns in two years. My guess is - it's a win-win deal for the bank. Arturo's other friends, upon receiving similar letters, chose not to uproot their lives.
The other, Pedro, talked about construction in Mexico. The Four Seasons chain built the first luxury resort in Punta Mita twelve years ago. They are now building 90 villas in the area which they'll sell at $3 million a pop, or a cool $270 million altogether. They have 3000 Mexican workers on the job. They make $30 - a day. No benefits. A win-win for the Four Seasons.
Meanwhile, less we feel smug about our wages, our minimum and real wages continue to drop relative to both inflation and productivity (as I say in Jacked - this means we're working out butts off with less to show for it). During the Bush II years, total average worker compensation rose 7.2%, productivity was up more than double that - by 16.6%. Factoring in inflation, the median hourly wage for Americans dropped 2% since 2003. This might not be the same discrepancy as contained in the latest Four Seasons project - but, neither is very pro-worker.
To my father who moved to Mexico after Bush was re-elected.
Dad has conviction. And foresight. I just returned from spending a week a few hours from his home, at a town called Punta Mita. The beach was beautiful, weather terrific and food tastefully lacking US preservatives.
The flight back through Mexico City began with the confiscation of my MAC eye-concealer, a cream-colored receptacle, the size of an index finger - which made it safer for everyone. It ended with a lengthy wait at US Immigration (a welcoming place with signs telling anyone who doesn't belong - please have your fingerprints ready, next to signs saying 'keeping our borders open, and our nation secure.') The 49-year old Pakistani man in front of me was carted off somewhere by 3 armed homeland security people, his crime as far as I could overhear, was being a 49-year old Pakistani man flying in from Mexico.
While in Mexico, as with my US trips researching JACKED, I spoke with a couple taxi drivers who know the real deal about what's going on. Their stories tell the other side of illegal immigration and sad wages.
One, Arturo, is a 30 year old man with a young daughter who was born in Salt Lake City. For several years, he worked construction there at $15 an hour, paid taxes on it. Minimum wage in Mexico is $5 - a day; the price of a McDonalds' Big Mac / Fries and a Coke. 18 months ago, US immigration arbitrarily told him he had three months to leave the country. They offered him an appointment at the US offices in Guadalajara to readdress his status. Two years later. He left with his family and now, has 6 months left until that meeting. He couldn't find a buyer for the house he bought in Salt Lake City in time, so his bank offered to take him out of his mortgage and keep the appreciation value - unless he returns in two years. My guess is - it's a win-win deal for the bank. Arturo's other friends, upon receiving similar letters, chose not to uproot their lives.
The other, Pedro, talked about construction in Mexico. The Four Seasons chain built the first luxury resort in Punta Mita twelve years ago. They are now building 90 villas in the area which they'll sell at $3 million a pop, or a cool $270 million altogether. They have 3000 Mexican workers on the job. They make $30 - a day. No benefits. A win-win for the Four Seasons.
Meanwhile, less we feel smug about our wages, our minimum and real wages continue to drop relative to both inflation and productivity (as I say in Jacked - this means we're working out butts off with less to show for it). During the Bush II years, total average worker compensation rose 7.2%, productivity was up more than double that - by 16.6%. Factoring in inflation, the median hourly wage for Americans dropped 2% since 2003. This might not be the same discrepancy as contained in the latest Four Seasons project - but, neither is very pro-worker.
posted by Nomi Prins | 9:05 AM
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