Open AccessEmployer Sanctions and the Wages of Mexican Immigrants
Author(s) -
Peter Brownell
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
rsf
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.979
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 2377-8261
pISSN - 2377-8253
DOI - 10.7758/rsf.2017.3.4.05
Subject(s) - sanctions , immigration , enforcement , wage , differential (mechanical device) , illegal immigrants , labour economics , demographic economics , human capital , economics , business , political science , law , economic growth , engineering , aerospace engineering
Wage differences between authorized and unauthorized Mexican immigrants can be explained by human capital factors prior to the 1986 passage of employer sanctions, which prohibited knowingly hiring unauthorized aliens. However, a significant post-1986 wage differential has been interpreted as employers “passing along” expected costs of sanctions through lower wages for unauthorized immigrants. I test this explanation using administrative data on employer sanctions enforcement, finding employer sanctions enforcement levels are related to Mexican immigrants’ wages but have no statistically significant differential effect based on legal status. Estimated savings to employers due to the pay gap are orders of magnitude larger than actual fines