The Mexican economy is growing faster than that of the US. Assembly line wages: $8-$16/day.

[Karmadillo]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/world/americas/11matamoros.html?_r=1&hp

Despite Mexican Violence, U.S. Firms Expand by Border
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: July 10, 2011

<edit>

Despite the bleak outlook the drug war summons, the Mexican economy is humming along, not without warning signs but growing considerably faster than that of the United States.

Even as drug organizations battle for turf around them, more TV sets are being assembled, car parts boxed up and electronic widgets soldered together in the large manufacturing plants here known as maquiladoras. The result is a boomlet in jobs in some of Mexico’s hardest-hit cities, a bright spot in an otherwise bleak stream of shootouts, departing small businesses and fear of random death.

Over all, jobs in Mexico’s manufacturing sector increased 8.2 percent to 1.8 million as of January, the most recent figures available, driven mostly by what Mexican officials called regaining health in the auto and electronics industries, the engine of the economy along the border. Even Ciudad Juarez, which has both the highest level of violence and the largest number of maquiladoras, added 1.3 percent more jobs, to 176,824.

Mostly American-owned and in border states, the plants import raw materials duty free and export assembled products, lowering the cost of goods in the United States and providing jobs that pay more than the Mexican average (typically $8 to $16 per day on the assembly line) but a lot less than American wages.

more...

[enough]

1. Somebody doesn't like this. My rec disappeared into zero. Interesting math there.

I find this story significant in a lot of ways.

[Oceansaway]

2. k & r...nt

[alp227]

3. A thousand words and no mention of NAFTA? n/t

[xchrom]

4. +1

[Springer9]

7. Kind of strange isn't it?

But, it is Emanuel’s role in securing the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that seems most at odds with Obama’s campaign and the economic debate over NAFTA during the 2008 Democratic Party primary.



wonder who's butt they are trying to cover?

[gateley]

5. Am I reading this correctly? $8-16 per hr is a lot less than American

wages?

A pharmaceutical facility in NC where I worked paid the line workers $8 - MAYBE even $7, don't really know for sure. But I know they were low, and not unusual in that area.

[n2doc]

6. per day n/t

[gateley]

8. Oh! Thanks for the clarifying (trying to read on the fly at work is tough). nt

[Karmadillo]

9. How does the American worker compete with this? Does it suggest

the course American wages will roughly take in the relatively near future? And what's happening to the profits made by the companies who ship jobs outside the US to take advantage of lower wages and more oppressed populations. Shared with the workers? Paid back in taxes to support Mexican and American infrastructure so future workers will be able to compete globally? Paid out to elect polticians who'll be happy to approve more trade agreements regardless of the impact on the American worker?

[jimmyflint]

11. This is scary to me, maybe I am wrong but,

I expect when all the American jobs that can be out sourced are gone, there will be calls to bring cheaper labor from abroad. The rich simply don't need American blue collar workers any longer.

[rhett o rick]

10. And we dare criticize Clinton and Obama for NAFTA. Obviously it's working.

Just not for the American worker. But who cares when you are looking global. I love the smell of capitalism in the morning.

Ayn Rand is winning

[octothorpe]

12. I guess that kinda explains the job ADs I see on craigslist

I've seen manufacturing jobs requiring several years of experience for skilled and semi-skilled positions, but only pay 8/hr... Which is obviously better than 8/day, but hardly seems fair. I suppose it's a result of cheap labor being available to American companies in other countries, aye?

[Starry Messenger]

13. And once wages are depressed far enough in this country

more global corporations like Ikea will come and screw workers here, since they can't in their own countries. Race to the bottom.

[Karmadillo]

16. Great. After we have enough charter schools foisted on us, we can have charter factories

where we give them immunity from all that environmental red tape and OSHA and minimum wage requirements. What a world.

[Starry Messenger]

17. Wouldn't be surprised if there weren't already a few.

Usually they sneak in as something new age and enlightened-sounding so people who would normally be on their guard don't see that they are trying to get around regulations. Or defend it as being "innovative". *cough*boutique farms*cough*

[immoderate]

18. They're here. We call them prisons.

Good labor for $25 an hour.

--imm

[amborin]

14. and emigration to the US has stopped; Mexicans have more opportunities & opt to stay in Mexico

[TheFarseer]

15. $8-$16/day is higher than last I checked

Perhaps our wages will fall so far, and theirs will rise so much that it will no longer pay to outsource? Of course then they still can avoid regulation and health benefits etc etc as well as taxes. I just can't figure out where hope for this country is.