[arcseco]

In a closed labour market (one where the number of available workers remains stable) it would have begun rising already. Wages are artificially depressed using immigration. Like most markets, labour vs demand for labour is just a function of supply and demand.

*Just to clarify, this issue is definitely more complicated than an S&D curve and it is not my intention for this issue to become mired in politics. However it's worth having a discussion about domestic wage stagnation and the decline of the middle class in the US, and how it relates to the past 30 years of trade liberalization and increased immigration rates.

[learc83]

When you say "just a function of supply and demand". This only applies to perfectly competitive markets where everyone has perfect information. The labor market is a textbook example of information asymmetry.

[arcseco]

Your point rings true, but I think you're talking more about more microscopic asymmetries in wages. Certainly in some areas of the country you have a demand for labour that is not satisfied by cross state migration, however the aggregate demand doesn't really change. When you add excess labour to the closed system (The whole of the US labour market) it will inevitably reduce demand as companies looking to fill roles are more easily able to do so.

[rco8786]

> Wages are artificially depressed using immigration.

What an amazing and completely original scapegoat. Even if it were true, using a 7th grade economics to describe the entirety of U.S. employment economics has to be a joke, right?

[arcseco]

It's not really a scapegoat, it is a major part of the issue. The balance between wage growth and immigration rates don't seem to be discussed in mainstream politics (Likely because it's in the interests of the ownership class to keep the issue muted). The issue gets relegated to the fringes, and thus becomes an emotionally charged issue.

I am not an economist but immigration rates and the relaxing of barriers of trade between nations would seem to be the most impactful policies on domestic wage growth. You can always argue that these policies have helped to lift the rest of the world out of poverty, but it doesn't belie the fact that increased immigration rates impact on wage growth for American workers. Maybe someone could shed more light on this issue, but I would suspect that both issues are inexorably tied.

[exabrial]

He's not completely incorrect though: Illegal immigration accounts for a significant portion of farm and construction labor in the southwest/midwest because it gets around pesky minimum wage and other labor laws. These are usually unskilled jobs however, so their effect on other wages is likely nonsignificant. Legal Immigration in general tends to grow wages as the GDP and investment increases.