The ethics of employing undocumented labor

[wiggin]

My wife and I recently decided to hire someone to help clean our home every week or two. I've resisted this for a long time, but I've had to accept that our time is better spent on other activities, so we've started looking. As part of this, we have received many recommendations from local friends for house cleaners that they employ. One thing that has become clear to us is that while none of our friends know that these employees are undocumented, it appears to be a fair assumption that they are.

I am by nature a law abiding person, and as such would want to follow applicable law for household employees - including checking their authorization to work in the United States, paying for unemployment insurance and FICA, etc. I feel that doing things 'right' is not just the correct thing to do from a legal perspective, but it also helps fund safety net programs (e.g. Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment) that provide workers some protections. However, for employees who are undocumented, generally pay is cash under the table and bypasses all of this. I am quite uncomfortable with that arrangement.

On the other hand, I also think that the US immigration system is unfair and unethical and believe that most undocumented people should be able to work and reside in the United States. I know just how challenging it can be for someone who is undocumented to find decent jobs, and it seems problematic to specifically deny employment to people who may need it most. One of the highly recommended housekeepers was only taking 50% of the already low payment my friends were making to an agency for her services, which was criminally low wages (likely because the housekeeper was undocumented). When my friends found this out, they hired her to work for them directly, at triple her previous wages, and it was still relatively cheap! But this illustrates how precarious and unfair the system is for these vulnerable populations. Who am I to insist on following the law wrt household employees when there is a very real need among this population for stable and fair employment?

I'm curious what you guys think - is it appropriate to insist that everything be done by the book, or should I flaunt established rules in favor of provided much needed employment to a marginalized population?

[Loki]

You make solid arguments on both sides. Which is to say you should do what makes you feel most comfortable.

[Ominous Gamer]

Would legal labor likely mean going through a larger organization? Like care.com?

[wiggin]

Frequently that is the case, but I'm sure we could find a freelancer as well. The issue isn't that we couldn't find someone, the question is whether it's more or less ethical to specifically avoid undocumented labor.

[Ominous Gamer]

I get what you're asking, but you did a pretty good job of laying out both sides. For me I would tilt towards undocumented if it meant being able to get rid of middlemen like care.com, but if you can find freelance housekeeping thats above board...

[LittleFuzzy]

The documented cleaner doesn't exactly have it easy either. I'd definitely find the free-lance cleaner to get rid of the middle-man overhead, if you're willing/able to pay for the necessary benefits yourself and can secure the labor but I would trend toward hiring the documented worker because it doesn't exactly same fair/right to select against them for having chosen/been able to properly go through the legal process.

[Dreadnaught]

You do make good points. What sways me a bit towards just hiring whoever you can find references for (regardless of status) is that the immigration system has created an enormous amount of "illegal" labor. Clearly we have laws in the US that large segments don't care to enforce or follow. That doesn't make it "right", but our broken laws and enforcement have created a dynamic. The incremental externalities of you being part of this dynamic and hiring someone for cash seem to be pretty minimal compared to other things such as, say, dumping your motor oil in the stream behind your house.

[wiggin]

The documented cleaner doesn't exactly have it easy either. I'd definitely find the free-lance cleaner to get rid of the middle-man overhead, if you're willing/able to pay for the necessary benefits yourself and can secure the labor but I would trend toward hiring the documented worker because it doesn't exactly same fair/right to select against them for having chosen/been able to properly go through the legal process.

Hmm, interesting perspective. I wasn't necessarily assuming that a cleaner with authorization to work in the US would necessarily be an immigrant (hence they would necessarily to have done things 'properly' other than being born), but I suppose you're right that this is probably a likely scenario given that we're talking about relatively low paid manual labor. I should note that it likely won't be easy to find a freelance cleaner who has work authorization, if nothing else because most of this is informal work and even people with work authorization are likely to be used to being paid in cash with little paperwork (even though we likely would need to withhold taxes/etc. and provide income/withholding documentation). So finding someone who wants to do things by the book may be challenging, even if we offer to pay all of the taxes/etc. up front so their effective take home pay is unchanged.

We haven't gotten too serious about trying to find someone like this yet - we just started with the 'solicit recommendations' from our local social circle, which wasn't super useful on this axis. So if nothing else there's a convenience factor associated with going with what everyone else does - less paperwork, less searching, known good experiences. But I generally don't violate tax and employment law just for convenience.

You do make good points. What sways me a bit towards just hiring whoever you can find references for (regardless of status) is that the immigration system has created an enormous amount of "illegal" labor. Clearly we have laws in the US that large segments don't care to enforce or follow. That doesn't make it "right", but our broken laws and enforcement have created a dynamic. The incremental externalities of you being part of this dynamic and hiring someone for cash seem to be pretty minimal compared to other things such as, say, dumping your motor oil in the stream behind your house.

Hmm, I'm less concerned with any minor externalities produced by hiring undocumented workers but more with the whole 'law breaking' aspect of it. There are relatively few laws that I break just because people ignore them and they are poorly enforced - I do jaywalk (with care), and exceed the speed limit (moderately), etc. But for something as important as employment law - which is most definitely enforced outside of household employment, and few people ignore in more formal contexts - I am much more uncomfortable with. I went out of my way when we had a short lived nanny in the first Covid summer to make sure we complied with every detail of the law - why wouldn't I do the same for a different household employee? I don't have to like immigration law - for that matter, I don't like most of e.g. our tax law. But I also don't ignore it just because it's convenient.

I think the argument that would get me to adopt a DADT approach (of dubious legality) wouldn't be that no one cares - because people most definitely do - but that the law itself is unjust and there is a moral imperative to break it. I think this is a tough standard to meet in most cases, but I think it's at least feasible here.

[Aimless]

Hire an undocumented immigrant at a fair (ie. probably better than market) and then you keep an eye out for opportunities to help with things that can be more valuable than money—knowledge, contacts, references, guidance or advice where applicable. If an opportunity to regularize their immigration status ever presents itself, help with that. All of this is assuming knowingly hiring an undocumented immigrant doesn't come with significant legal risk for you and your family. Second best is to hire a local freelancer or someone local working part-time to make extra cash. If you just want to pay someone to clean your house without developing a more beneficial relationship beyond the purely professional, then all options are about the same.

[Dreadnaught]

Hire an undocumented immigrant at a fair (ie. probably better than market) and then you keep an eye out for opportunities to help with things that can be more valuable than money—knowledge, contacts, references, guidance or advice where applicable. If an opportunity to regularize their immigration status ever presents itself, help with that. All of this is assuming knowingly hiring an undocumented immigrant doesn't come with significant legal risk for you and your family. Second best is to hire a local freelancer or someone local working part-time to make extra cash. If you just want to pay someone to clean your house without developing a more beneficial relationship beyond the purely professional, then all options are about the same.

This is a good point (assuming you generally support that person's right to be in the country despite their legal status). A family member of mine hired a construction worker not realizing they were undocumented. His work was great and he shared he was saving to buy some equipment that would enable him to stop renting equipment and make more profit on his jobs. So this family member extended credit at effectively zero interest for the equipment (via discounted service).

[Flixy]

Clearly the solution is to play this song on repeat during cleaning


Joke aside, if you don't feel comfortable breaking the law don't do it. I don't know enough about US labour (and potentially immigration) laws to know if you should feel ok breaking it, so I'm afraid I'm not much help there. As long as you don't exploit the cleaner (and I highly doubt you will), I wouldn't have major issues with it too be honest. For what it's worth, I've hired a friend if a friend as a cleaner in the past illegally, while I'm also in general not comfortable with breaking the law, and did not mind. IDK, I know it's hard for people with low income while it's easy for me being well off. So I just do whatever they prefer.

[GGT]

Seems to me you're asking for validation in hiring a domestic worker in the gray economy because traditional avenues a) don't necessarily protect the worker, and b) you don't want to spend the money it would take to protect that worker. Too much paperwork or what?

I'm amazed at the number of high income families who hire Nannies or Housekeepers, but don't pay their FICA tax contributions, and then act shocked and surprised when the IRS fines them for not following employment laws.

You won't be doing any "favor" to undocumented workers if you just pay them more money for working in the shadow economy. Assuming they will eventually want to apply for citizenship, and benefits like SS and Medicare that are only afforded to folks who've worked for X # of quarters, you're actually depriving them of retirement funds they've *earned* but can't collect.

BTW this isn't just for undocumented workers, but anyone working in the shadow economy, including anyone who relies on tips.