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Abstract:
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According to 2002 National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) data, among all farm workers, 79 percent were foreign born, 30 percent were migrant, and 51 percent lacked work authorization. These pertinent characteristics of U.S. farm workers echo the core issues in today's immigration debate. With the goal to shed light on the debate by understanding the group of farm workers, this paper examines the wage and working condition differentials among the sub-groups of U.S. agricultural workers. This paper investigates whether there are different wage disparity and working condition gaps among agricultural workers of different employment eligibility (authorized or unauthorized) and migrant type (non-migrant or migrant). Data source is the latest 2002 NAWS conducted by the Department of Labor. This research builds upon the existing literature of different determinants that contribute to wage and working condition differentials. New contribution to the literature lies in the research's utilizing more recent data as well as tying it to the current immigration policy reform. |