Undocumented Workers Ethics

Words: 1503
Pages: 7

Ethical Issue in Agribusiness: The Hiring of Undocumented Workers

In business there are many decisions to be made, these decisions are often complicated and adding ethics in the mix can make the decisions more complicated. Before we can decide if something is ethical or unethical, we must understand what ethics is. Ethics is the study of human behavior, and human behavior is defined by morality. Ethics looks at behaviors that are less emotional.
There are two approaches to business competitive approach and government control approach. Competitive approach is when the only regulation on business is the competition between businesses in the industry. The government control approach is when the government sets regulations the business
…show more content…
The article, “Illegal Immigrants Benefit the U.S. Economy”, stated that “according to The United States Department of Agriculture, about half of the hired workers employed in U.S. agriculture are unauthorized, and any potential immigration reform could have significant impacts on the U.S. fruit and vegetable industry.” To see how eliminating undocumented workers from the agriculture industry would affect prices, in the article “Illegal Immigrants Benefit the U.S. Economy, the USDA stated that “from the perspective of National Milk Producers Federation, retail milk prices would increase by sixty one percent if its immigrant labor force were to be …show more content…
If an undocumented worker were to get hurt on the job and are not provided with worker compensations, and other benefits that documented workers would receive, then the undocumented workers could sue the business that hired them.
Many feel that hiring undocumented workers is an unethical business decision, because it is unfair to U.S. workers, and those seeking work. It is unfair for businesses to hire undocumented workers rather than documented workers because the undocumented workers are willing to work for lower wages than documented workers. The documented workers are unable to work for these low waged due to a higher cost of living, but the undocumented workers are able to accept this low pay, which they send back home to their families in other countries where the cost of living are