Would you pick lettuce for $50 an hour? Landscape for $34 an hour?

[itchrelief]

I just read an article in the Los Angeles Times about how businesses need a guest worker program because US citizens will not do hard physical labor even for white collar wages (according to the business owners).

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...home-headlines
(requires registration, copy & paste of article in 2nd post, moderators please delete if this violates any rules)

There was a government landscape contractor who does things like freeway landscaping, who is legally required to pay at least $14 an hour for unskilled labor, $34 for experienced. She says she finds it is very difficult to find employees. As an example, she states she recently ran an ad in a local newspaper and only two people applied for a job.

John McCain while addressing an audience of union workers stated that Americans would not pick lettuce, even for $50 an hour. The union workers countered that they would, and a few showed up at his office later with heads of lettuce and applications to apply for lettuce picking jobs. (This may have just been grandstanding, however)

Honestly, I think that Americans won't work hard physical labor for minimum wage, but I disagree that they won't do the job at any price. My counterexamples: Alaska crabfishermen and oil field roughnecks.

I just think the two examples cited above in the article are extreme outliers to the median wage ACTUALLY being offered to do physical labor, and in the case of the government landscape contractor, I believe a bit more effort to advertise the wage would bring a MARKED increase in applications, especially if a quick transition were guaranteed from the $14/hr position to the $34/hr position.