The Student Worker Alliance is concerned with the welfare of the worst-off on campus. I share this concern, but have grave doubts about the consequences of their living wage campaign. In fact, the campaign will hurt the worst-off of the worst-off-the Latino migrant workers on campus.

Compared to most students, campus workers have it bad. They earn wages that few students would be willing to accept, except perhaps as a summer or entry-level job. And the wages-$8 per hour, according to SWA estimates-are not enough to keep family breadwinners above the federal poverty line. Using the St. Louis aldermen’s figures, a living wage-the wage needed to keep a family above the poverty line-in St. Louis would be $9.79 per hour with full benefits.

But the concept of the poverty line is problematic. For example, the poverty line for a family of four is $19,350, according to 2005 statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That’s what the federal government says it annually costs a family of four to live in the continental U.S.

Given that the poverty line for a single person is $9,570, a Mexican migrant worker earning $19,350 sends roughly $10,000 per year back to his family in Mexico, or $833 per month. According to Mexican government statistics, only 11 percent of Mexicans earn $600 or more per month in their home country. So far from a living wage, SWA wants to make migrant workers economic elites in their home country.

That’s a good thing. I’m a big fan of redistributive justice (pejoratively known as “tax the rich, feed the poor”), and I especially believe in that on an international scale: Americans have a duty to help poor nations. But a living wage at Wash U will keep money in the country, rather than allowing it to go to developing nations. Compared with much of the developing world, America’s working class is wealthy, so a true commitment to helping the worst-off would mean helping the developing world, not the American working class.

SWA’s proposal will do the exact opposite of that by costing migrant workers their jobs at the University. The workers are here on H-2B visas, which are fairly difficult to get approved (only 66,000 are authorized per year). Among other requirements, an American employer can only hire migrants on H-2B visas if he cannot find Americans able and willing to do the work. That means he has to advertise the positions in local newspapers, talk to unions and have his failed efforts certified by the federal Department of Labor.

At current wage levels, no American wants the migrants’ jobs. If all service workers get living wages, you better believe Americans will take those jobs; $9.79 an hour plus full benefits is much better than Wal-Mart or other retail jobs. And since H-2B visas are only seasonal, when an American takes a migrant worker’s job, the migrant worker loses the ability to work in the U.S. for far more than he could earn in his native country.

Thus, the migrant’s family loses a great source of income, while working-class Americans benefit from higher wages. Living wage, then, is a transfer of wealth from the world’s worst-off to America’s working class, which is well off compared to developing nations.

Migrant workers at Wash U can’t afford a living wage, so SWA should be looking for other ways to improve their lives. First and foremost, migrants need help learning English so as to be employable in many American jobs. Also, subsidized wire transfers would help the workers send more money back to their struggling families. Third, the University could increase pay, but not so much that Americans want migrant workers’ jobs. Finally, providing them with legal assistance with immigration procedures would be truly helpful; our nationally renowned clinical program at the law school doesn’t have an immigration law clinic.

My parents fled anti-Semitism and economic despair in Argentina, virtually starting over from nothing in the U.S. The Holy Grail for my parents was not joining a union or getting a pay raise, but getting a green card. If SWA really wanted to help the worst-off at Wash U, they would push the University to sponsor migrant workers for permanent residency (it would be difficult, admittedly). That, and not a living wage, would be a huge boon to the Latino workers on campus.

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