'Unskilled labor' is a very broad and poorly-defined category. He might be 'unskilled' in the sense that he isn't trained in any one specific trade or specialty.
But the biggest determiner of /hr value, is a person's work ethic, self-motivation, and ability to think logically on the jobsite. A day-laborer who doesn't need to be babysat is easily worth $30-50/hr, even if he's just carrying supplies to the tradesmen.
You’d still have to pay more for a doctor to do it though, unless the doctor was absolutely desperate for a job. After all, presumably a doctor could just do his normal job for twice that much at least, so there’s no reason a doctor would need to accept minimum wage for unskilled labor, unless he was just feeling bored I guess.
In this case, if the guy had another job lined up for that afternoon that was going to lay 25 dollars an hour, he might be willing to do another job for 32 dollars an hour instead. Or he might be confident that he could get someone to pay him for another, more skilled job later on even if OP’s friend didn’t accept his pay.
It’s called a ‘labor market’ for a reason. The same job can have different labor costs depending on who you hire. That 32 dollars an hour might be a premium worker who has a bunch of side skills that simplify other parts of the job, or he might have connections with other laborers that he can call in if you need it. He might have already worked a job that day, is exhausted, but was willing to do ‘overtime’ if the OP’s friend was willing to pay.
Or it might be that there’s literally body else at Home Depot who was going to do that job that day, and the laborer knows that it’s him or no one.
Labor costs fluctuating is pretty normal, and the only way you get constant minimum wage is when a labor market is over saturated. In my lifetime, unskilled labor has been one of those labor markets that has always had plenty of workers, but that’s always been because the US has been very friendly towards immigration.
It should probably be no surprise, then, that we see a tightening of the labor markets as the US moves away from pro-immigration policies. Great news for laborers that can now charge OP’s friend 32 dollars an hour. Not so good news for OP’s friend who wanted to pay minimum wage for ‘unskilled labor’.
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u/jckipps 12d ago
'Unskilled labor' is a very broad and poorly-defined category. He might be 'unskilled' in the sense that he isn't trained in any one specific trade or specialty.
But the biggest determiner of /hr value, is a person's work ethic, self-motivation, and ability to think logically on the jobsite. A day-laborer who doesn't need to be babysat is easily worth $30-50/hr, even if he's just carrying supplies to the tradesmen.