As the Number of Undocumented Workers Increases, Other Workers’ Wages Rise

The wage impact of undocumented workers: Evidence from administrative data - Hotchkiss - 2015 - Southern Economic Journal - Wiley Online Library

October 28, 2015

As the Number of Undocumented Workers Increases, Other Workers’ Wages Rise

Employees get an average wage boost of 0.44% for every 1 percentage point increase in the share of undocumented workers in their county or industry and a 0.09% wage boost for every 1 percentage point rise in the fraction of undocumented workers employed by their firm, says a team led by Julie L. Hotchkiss of Georgia State University. Drawing on data from the U.S. state of Georgia, the researchers say that an influx of undocumented, low-skill workers appears to allow firms to reassign other employees to higher-skilled and higher-paying jobs.

SOURCE: The Wage Impact of Undocumented Workers: Evidence from Administrative Data