Day workers, also know as day labor, are an interesting discussion and poise problems or benefits depending on your perspective. Some people see them as a blight and even a danger in their communities. Long lines of men dominating public areas reasonably makes any woman uncomfortable. Then the local businesses and homeowners step in and say these day laborers are the only ones who will do the manual labor requested. Thrown into the mix, the controversial law in Arizona allows local officials to check a person’s citizenship status based on probable cause (undefined at the moment). This creates extra work for police officers, who already have enough to do, and promotes racial profiling most likely against these day workers. There are better ways to deal with this, that avoid the knee jerk reaction to think every hispanic on the street is an illegal.

Designate a single area in your community to be a Day Worker Depot and the use of any other area for day workers would be illegal. This will be preferably near public transit to help the people get to work. It wont change the feel of the area since public transit tends to be crowded already. Located on premises will be a worker depot station, which would be either a machine or personnel in a box similar to those at small gas stations and of course lots of benches around the area with easy drive-in access. Each person who wants to work will have to purchase a day working pass for $1. A worker can purchase a yearly pass for $100 at a local DMV. In the case of the yearly pass a worker will have their ID verified for the worker program. They then can use their ID like a credit card to acquire a day pass for free or they will be given a yearly pass card which will let them get a day pass on the days they wish to work.

Day workers will have the means to verify their work with employers. The single-day work card will have a small area to fill out who you worked for, their employee identification number, and a signature line verifying the work was completed. This will create a system of records for the day worker to go back to in cases of employer abuse, workplace injuries, refusal to pay, and more.

These designated Day Worker Depots can have employment agencies setting up short-term work programs, commercial amenities such as food stands can be offered, community outreach information established, and more. The potential for economic growth and community interaction are immense.

A website will also be created to help with frequently asked questions and to connect employers with workers. Through the website an employer can request to hire someone, while providing all the information necessary to perform the task. A personnel at the Day Worker Depot then will check in with the day labors and see who qualifies. This can also be done over the phone. Day labors can leave profiles of their skills and experience in order to expedite the process.

Each worker will have to register at the depot to be able to get a card. When they register they will be issued a unique identification number. This number will help the IRA track employment history for both individual taxes and payroll taxes. A worker can choose to use their social security number if they wont to instead of being issued a new number.

The last piece of the puzzle falls into place with the $100 yearly pass requiring a birth certificate or some other proof of legal status. Since citizenship isn’t required for your single day pass this shouldn’t create undue hardship. The yearly program is incentivized by its significantly lower fee and possible other benefits. The yearly cost for just getting single day passes approximates at $317 with weekends off. When it comes down to finances, purchasing a yearly pass makes more sense. Of course theses numbers would have to be adjusted for the savings incurred from not having to pay for taxes since the day pass workers might not be citizens. As a consequence the daily fee might need to be increased.

This program must be able to pay for itself. If the worker fees aren’t enough to cover costs then they must go up. If the cost becomes inhibitive and workers don’t participate in the program as a result the program should be dissolved instead of being subsidized by tax dollars.

Now you might say, “interesting idea, but how can you verify such a system?” First, police officers can come down to the single Day Worker Depot and scan people’s day worker cards to see if they are valid since the information will be automatically uploaded into their databases. If an employer is caught using day workers without a valid day worker card they can be fined an appropriate fee. Since day workers can only congregate at the Day Worker Depot any worker caught trying to work elsewhere could be ticketed by a police officer.

Summary of Regulations:

  1. In order to be a street side day worker you have to get a single day work pass from a machine at a designated Day Worker Depot.
  2. If you want to get a yearly pass for much cheaper you need to show proof of citizenship such as a drivers license or a birth certificate.
  3. If an employer is caught hiring day workers who don’t have day passes he will be fined per worker.
  4. If a day worker is caught trying to pick-up work not at the Day Worker Depot he will be fined.
  5. Employers will be charged a payroll tax on day workers.

Summary of Benefits:

  1. Designate pick-up location to get day workers.
  2. Online site to help link day workers with employers.
  3. Personnel to help with connecting workers with employers.
  4. Ease of community outreach to day workers.
  5. Location of Day Worker Depot close to mass transit.
  6. Completely paid for by the single day pass fee.
  7. Day workers will be given an identification number to track employment history.
  8. Day workers will have the means to guarantee they are being paid.
  9. Day workers will be able to prove workplace injuries.
  10. Day workers will have incentives to show their legal status.

The negatives will make it not cost efficient to employ illegal day workers while the positives will motivate day workers to use the program instead of working around it. Police officers wouldn’t be profiling people, but rather making sure they are legally working. Inherent in the system is a check on illegal workers, eliminating an incentive for illegal immigrants to come here. Since a worker identification system will be in place this will make it easier to initiate temporary work programs and the like. I believe this could be a great stepping stone to facilitate legal immigration, add to our tax dollars (reducing the deficit), and to harmonize day workers with our communities at minimal cost.

This program won’t solve our immigration issues, but I do believe it will incentivize legal work and give us a system of verification, create a payroll tax, clean up our communities, streamline productivity, and establish incentives to legal work. The merits are there. Now it is time local governments start employing it.

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Example Programs: San Francisco Day Labor | Multicultural Institute