COMMENTARY | Don't think day laborers make valuable contributions to our community? Wrong.
The myths surrounding day laborers are not new. Many people have misconceptions about this hardworking group of people who make up part of our communities and neighborhoods.
Voz is a worker-led nonprofit organization that empowers diverse day laborers and immigrants to improve their working conditions and protect their civil rights through leadership development, organizing, education and economic opportunity. We fight for a community where all immigrants and all workers can thrive!
In this column, I’m going to bust four common myths about day laborers, and show how valuable their contributions are to Portland and the entire country.
Myth 1: Day laborers steal jobs
Day laborers don’t steal jobs. On the contrary, they form their own economy. Day laborers are hired for temporary manual labor jobs that no other workers fill. For many homeowners or small businesses it only takes a day or a weekend to finish up a project. Day laborers are the perfect employees for these jobs.
In some ways, day laborers are the original gig economy workers. Like ride-share drivers or food delivery service drivers, day laborers make up part of the informal economy that is becoming a larger and more significant part of the job market.
Like other gig economy work, day labor is hardly lucrative. Even when the hourly rate is high, day laborers have no job security and no guaranteed source of future income. At Voz, we work to improve the working conditions for day labor and create new jobs in the process. We guarantee a fair minimum wage and offer labor protections that lift up all low-income workers by raising the floor for wages and labor practices. Far from stealing jobs, day laborers make our economy stronger.
Myth 2: Day laborers don’t contribute to the community
Day laborers contribute to the community in so many ways. Day laborers are parents, artists, volunteers, community members and taxpayers. Stereotypes about day laborers portray them as loners, as outsiders and as harming the community. These myths could not be further from the truth.
More than 40% of day laborers have lived in the United States for more than six years, and they are actively involved in our communities. More than half of our day laborers attend church, and many are active in sports clubs, volunteer groups and local nonprofits – including Voz. Six out of 10 day laborers are parents – which makes it even more urgent for them to earn living wages to support their families.
Another common misconception is that day laborers and other immigrant communities don’t pay taxes. In fact, the most recent data from the IRS shows it received $4.4 billion in taxes from people without a valid Social Security number. That money funds programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that individuals without a valid Social Security number cannot even access.
Day laborers are already part of our communities, and they give back in so many different ways. At Voz, day laborers participate in community cleanups and plant trees around the city. If you want to get to know your day laborer neighbors, come and volunteer or practice your Spanish at Voz.
Myth 3: Day laborers are unskilled
Wrong again. Day laborers come from all different walks of life, which means they have a variety of skills to offer to employers and the community. Many day laborers had full careers in their home countries before migrating to the United States. Their skills range from landscaping to accounting, to construction to roofing, farming, health care and more. There are even Ph.D.-holding professors.
Unfortunately, for many people, their career experience means nothing in the context of the U.S. job market. Facilities such as Voz’s Martin Luther King Jr. Worker Center, on MLK Jr. Boulevard, serves as an entry point to the local workforce, as a place to transition to a more stable job, or as a hub to connect to fair wage temporary jobs if workers face barriers to full-time employment. In addition to the skills that day laborers bring with them, Voz provides workforce development trainings to build job skills and connect day laborers to higher paying jobs.
The next time you hire through the Worker Center, the person you hired for landscaping might also be a poet, a doctor or a teacher!
To learn more about hiring a day laborer, go to portlandvoz.org/hire-a-worker.
Myth 4: Hiring day laborers is exploitive
When you hire a day laborer, you contribute not just to the worker, but his/her family and at the same time create awareness in our community about the role of day laborers and how valuable their contribution is. It is not exploitive.
Day labor only becomes exploitative when employers have bad intentions and choose to cause harm by denying wages, denying breaks or denying necessary protection for dangerous jobs. At Voz, we facilitate relationships between day laborers and employers to make sure everyone understands the expectations for the job, that day laborers will be working under safe conditions, and that they will be paid a fair wage. Our organization tries to ensure that day laborers work under safe conditions and are treated fairly. We empower day laborers to advocate for themselves and provide education to employers when they have questions.
Hiring a day laborer is a way to dignify their work and provide a source of income for these workers and their families. When you hire at the Worker Center, you are not just helping the worker, you are part of the solution for improving day labor working conditions and building economic and social power for the entire day laborer community.
Marvin Peña is the grassroots engagement coordinator for Voz, which advocates and empowers day laborers in Portland.
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