Politics

CRS Report: Wages Declined As Immigration Surged

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Rachel Stoltzfoos Staff Reporter
Font Size:

Wages and share of income for the bottom 90 percent of American wage-earners declined over the past 40 years, as the foreign-born population increased dramatically, data requested by the Senate Judiciary Committee shows.

Since 1970, the foreign-born population of the U.S. increased 325 percent, the Congressional Research Service found, while wages for the bottom 90 percent of earners decreased by 8 percent and their share of income by 16 percent. (RELATED: Media Ignores Evidence Americans Want To Reduce Legal Immigration)

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker weathered sharp criticism from Democrats and some conservatives this week after saying immigration policy should put American workers first. (RELATED: Liberal Media CAN’T EVEN Over Walker’s Immigration Stance)

“In terms of legal immigration … it is a fundamentally lost issue by many in elected positions today, is what is this doing for American workers looking for jobs, what is this doing to wages,” he told Glenn Beck in an interview, reported by Breitbart News.

The CRS charted the correlation between wages and the number of foreign-born workers in the U.S. between 1945 and 2010. Before 1970, wages rose sharply as the number of foreign-born persons declined. But after 1970, that population increased dramatically as wages stagnated, increased slightly and then dropped.

Source: Congressional Research Service Report

Source: Congressional Research Service Report

From 1945 to 1970 wages for the bottom 90 percent of earners increased by 82.5 percent, and their share of income rose slightly, while the foreign-born population in the U.S. fell by 11.2 percent to 9.7 million.

But between 1970 and 2013, the foreign-born population increased by 324.5 percent to 31.6 million people. At the same time wages fell by 7.9 percent and share of income by 15.5 percent to 53 percent of total income.

The foreign-born population will reach 51 million by 2023, which is the largest share of total population ever recorded in American history, the U.S. Census Bureau recently projected.

Nearly one in five U.S. residents will be an immigrant by 2060, largely because of legal immigration, not illegal immigration, a Center for Immigration Studies analysis of the Census data found. And immigrants will account for 82 percent of population growth in the U.S. from 2010 through 2060.

Source: Center for Immigration Studies

Source: Center for Immigration Studies

Follow Rachel on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.