From a Roofing Employer

Roofing is one of the most physically demanding of all the construction trades. With 424 degree hot asphalt, add summertime temperatures in the mid to upper 90's and you have a very demanding work environment.

Currently, we are so desperate for workers, we recently set up a booth and had six of our key management team members attend an all-day job fair here in Houston. We had over 100 people come to our booth and talk to us. From that we had four people actually come to our office, talk to us and fill out applications. Not one accepted our offer to come to work.

Today, virtually 90% of the people that apply for work at our company are Hispanic. Remove the Hispanics, and roofing work will come to a halt!

Some people say we would have more workers if the industry paid higher wages. That may or may not be true. What is certain, if we further constrict the flow of Hispanic workers, roofing contractors will be forced to attract workers from other industries. Given the difficulty of our work, it is clear that $3 or $4 an hour more will not be adequate to attract the needed workers.

If the Hispanic work force is restricted due to any new punitive immigration legislation, I can assure you that contractors will be more than happy to mark up $25 per hour wages for the new work force versus $15. The question is, will the American public be able to pay a lot more?

The fact is that lower wages help the public more than the employers. Employers make more money marking up higher wages, not lower. Employers will simply adjust their bids to reflect the much higher cost of labor. I am amazed that so few people and politicians seem to understand this.

With dramatically higher wages, we, the public, will simply have to swallow hard and pay significantly higher prices.

It is clearly the private citizens that will lose economically with a punitive immigration policy, not the employers.