Immigration Should be Reduced to Give Workers Leverage

Wages are Still not to Blame for Inflation

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics February reports explaining how stagnant wages were not driving inflation, as some Democratic leaders were alleging in order to promote their immigration-increasing policies.

BLS September reports further show how inflation is outpacing wages. According to these reports, while wages increased by 5.0% over the previous 12 months, inflation increased by 8.2% over the same period. Dr. John P. David, Professor Emeritus of Economics at West Virginia University Institute of Technology, explains that these factors indicate how "wages are responding to inflation, not causing it."

As this Economic Policy Institute chart shows, recent wage gains are not the driving force behind inflation.

Recent, modest wage gains for some are not driving inflation. Tell Congress that struggling workers could do better with less immigration, not more.

Recession Warnings Amplify

Economists have been warning of the possibility of a U.S. recession since the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates this year to combat inflation.

Now, according to a Bloomberg column published this month, "[a] US recession is effectively certain in the next 12 months."

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who predicted rising inflation this year despite his naysayers, believes that "more likely than not" the US will face a recession.

Immigration Further Threatens Worker Bargaining Power During Recession

The October 7 Washington Post column "The job market is slowing, and this could just be the beginning" details how the slowing economy is negatively impacting the U.S. workforce:

"A robust job market that has defied expectations for years is showing more concrete signs of slowing.

"Companies' job postings have fallen sharply. Layoffs are creeping up. And new data released Friday show that U.S. job creation has slowed to its lowest level in nearly a year and a half."

In addition, the October 24 Washington Post column "Labor movement's next big challenge: Keeping momentum as economy slows" explains how recent worker gains in bargaining can be undermined during recession periods:

"[A]s the economy teeters toward a downturn in coming months, the window for cementing more victories could be narrowing. Already job openings have fallen, and some companies -- particularly in technology and interest-rate sensitive sectors such as mortgage finance -- have ordered hiring freezes and layoffs, igniting fears that the paradigm of power in favor of workers could be short-lived."

Increased costs hurt American families. The solution isn't to depress Americans' wages.