Earnings and Mobility of Legal and Illegal Immigrant Workers in Agriculture

This paper presents theoretical and empirical evidence that unauthorized immigrants are more likely to be selected into low‐wage, low‐skill farm jobs than are otherwise similar legal workers. Controlling for this selection process, the earnings of unauthorized workers are significantly lower than the earnings of legal workers in high‐skill farm jobs. These findings are shown to be consistent with expected profit maximization by farm employers. Legalization of farmworkers under the Special Agricultural Worker (SAW) program is not likely to increase farmworker earnings and may result in wage decreases in some farm jobs.