Strawberries

Illegal immigrants perform jobs that many say American workers will not do. If these jobs paid $36 per hour there would be no shortage of Americans to do this work. Business knows that if you can't get enough help you raise wages. Once companies increase wages they must increase cost. The average cost of strawberries is $3 per pound. The labor cost to harvest is 50 cents per pound. The minimum wage in California, where 90% of strawberries come from, is $12 per hour. To increase that to $36 per hour would mean increasing the cost of strawberries from $3 per pound $4 per pound. This is how the free market works. Americans eat 4 pounds of strawberries per year so their out of pocket cost to triple the wages would be $4 per year. When most people realize that picking strawberries means bending over in the hot sun all day they would be willing to spend and extra four dollars per year.