If you really are hiring illegals than this conversation doesn't apply to you. Those who hire illegals do so because they want to pay them less than the job they are asking their employees to do is really worth, assuming their business model is otherwise sound. The cost from egg to 5 lb chicken is about $1.86. The average hourly wage at U.S. chicken processing plants is 11/hr. Workers make 20-25K per year. The cost of this labor per 5 lb chicken @ 18 cents/lb, is 90 cents/chicken. *there are different figures given by different sources. I'm using the highest cost figures I could find. Inexplicably, the processing cost was quoted in one article as low as 10 cents per chicken, 2 cents/lb, which is surely an error. If these workers were paid 15/hr the labor cost per 5 pound chicken would go to up to $1.22 cents. If the entire increase in labor cost was passed on to the customer the customer would have to pay 32 cents more per 5 lb chicken. The retail price in Jan 2016 of whole chicken, midwest, is $1.43/lb or 7.15/chicken. If the average wage went to 15/hr and the entire increase in labor cost was added to the retail cost of a 5 lb chicken the cost would rise from 7.15 to 7.47. This would be a price increase of 4.5% Currently the whole sale industry sells 8.5 billion chickens per year and grosses 50 billion or 5.88/5 lb chicken. I used the chicken industry because it employs large numbers of low wage workers and would be very heavily impacted by a wage increase to 15/hr. Chicken has a higher proportion of low wage labor cost incorporated than most other consumer items. Therefore other consumer items could see correspondingly less price impact, some would see hardly any at all. I leave it to the GAO to estimate the over all impact of going to 15/hr minimum. my data sources: http://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic/data/AverageRetailFoodAndEnergyPrices_USandMidwest_Table.htm http://extension.psu.edu/animals/poultry/topics/general-educational-material/the-chicken /modern-meat-chicken-industry http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/10/27/3716268/poultry-plant-safety/
maybe 32 cents doesn't mean much to you, but it means a lot the owners of both the producer and buyer. If 32 cents is so small, just make it up to me in some other way. Put on the table something you will give me worth 32 cents per chicken and I will gladly pass it on to the employees in higher wages.
it may. 32 cents is about all my profit is. Yes, I can eat some of that and give it to the employees, but I'm already maxed out what I can sell it for. I mean, it's not like chicken is a necessity. So somebody has to give. And the culprit with the deepest pockets is the government.