When a truck pulls up in search of day laborers in the Mission District, they rush to be the first in. Those who are more cautious ask how much the patrรณn, employer, is willing to pay.
But getting hired does not always guarantee cash. After 17 days on a job doing grueling cement laying, day laborer Alfredo says he was only paid for four. When he spoke up, the contractor threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
โHe said that if I kept asking for the money, he would call ICE on me, because he knows where I live,โ Alfredo said in Spanish. The next day, fear kept him from showing up to his usual spot where he waits for work.
So far, life in the United States is nothing like Alfredo expected. He is one of the dozens of people โ many Latino and undocumented โ who look for work as day laborers. They wait on street corners as early as 6:30 a.m, often seven days a week.
Mission Local spoke with 10 undocumented workers โ many of whom requested anonymity โ and they all echoed a similar story: inconsistent work, but consistent wage theft.
John Logan, chair of the department of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University, says that wage theft among day laborers โhas been an ongoing problem for a very long time.โ
But given the federal crackdown on immigration, Logan says, employers have โbasically been given a green light by the Trump administrationโ to knowingly hire undocumented workers with the goal of exploiting them.
David Valencia, program manager of the Mission Action day-labor program, added that workers have long feared speaking up about workplace injustices, even before the Trump administration.
Many are unaware of San Francisco labor laws, and accept less than minimum wage from employers simply because they need the money. A language barrier, he said, often prevents them from effectively standing up to their employers.
Valencia added that Mission Action supports day laborers who have experienced wage theft by working with San Franciscoโs Office of Labor Standards Enforcement.
He said the organization reports about two to three consultations of possible wage-theft per month, but that many go unreported by day laborers, who are more concerned about their immigration status.
Alfredo, who came from Guatemala a little over a year ago, joined Mission Actionโs day-labor program, which connects employers with day laborers through a formal process. The program requires that employers pay all workers a minimum of three hours, at $30 an hour, on any job.
He looks for work on the street because he only gets a job from Mission Action about once a month. When an employer contacts Mission Action, the workers at the top of the rotating list of members are hired first. With 80 active members in the program, people can wait for their turn at a job for weeks.
Despite a varied set of skills in gardening, moving and painting, Alfredo has gone without work for weeks on end. Even when hired, he said, some employers have tried to take advantage of him and others who are undocumented.
โThere are some employers that think theyโre sharp,โ said Alfredo. โThey want to pay less than minimum wage for very difficult jobs because they know thereโs a need for work.โ
Alexander, a 19 year-old from Mexico, arrived in the United States just three months ago. He came with hopes of a better financial future and applied for jobs in the city. When he couldnโt get hired, he started looking for work in the Mission as a day laborer, where heโs also had little success.
When asked if he specializes in a type of work, Alexander said, โLo que caigaโ โ whatever comes my way. The teen worked for two weeks on a construction job for an employer who paid him $100 a day for 13 hour days.
The city organizations tasked with helping the undocumented work force say they are strapped. In July 2024, Mission Action, for example, lost nearly $1 million in city funding, with $100,000 in cuts directly impacting job dispatch and outreach within its worker center program.
Now, the organization is placing an emphasis on community meetings, educating day laborers on their rights and how to perform jobs with high quality, which makes it easier to get re-hired.
Those who wait on street corners, said Valencia, prefer the quantity of potential jobs over waiting for a job through Mission Action, though โpay will be a lot less.โ Still, he added that the organization tries to reach out to and educate laborers who solely look for work on the streets.
Making matters worse is a diminishing demand for jobs. Mission Action, Valencia said, doesnโt have as many contractors requesting laborers as in previous years.
Another day laborer with the program, Eduardo, previously worked in restaurants as a busser, but was laid off in May and hasnโt found work since. He signed up for the day-labor program in hopes of making money, but has only had one job in the last three months.
โI regret having come here,โ he said in Spanish.
Eduardo fled El Salvador in 1990 and applied for political asylum in the United States. When asked about fears of ICE among the day laborer community, Eduardo seemed aware of the risks, saying simply that thereโs work to be done. โThe fear is always there, no?โ
After 35 years, he admits regret having come to the U.S. He plans on returning to El Salvador next year, saying it would cost too much to renew his green card.
The city has several resources for day laborers.
Mission Actionโs day labor program can be reached at 415-252-5376 or 415-252-5375. Those looking to hire workers can schedule an appointment on Mission Actionโs website or by calling the number listed.
Calma, a volunteer run organization with a day laborer outreach program provides essentials like protective equipment, food and water to day laborers in the San Francisco area on the first Saturday of every month. You can contact them at daylaborer@calmaofficial.org.
A previous version of this article stated that Mission Action files two to three wage monthly wage theft cases with the Office of Labor and Employment Standards. It has since been corrected to note that the organization reports about two to three consultations of possible wage theft per month.
When the SF Day Labor Program was put together in the very early 2000s, it promised
1.) To ensure all day laborers got a decent wage from those who employed them.
2.) To bring all the men in to a central hiring agency so they wouldn’t need to wait on the streets to be picked up.
3.) To make compulsory regular quarterly reports as to numbers, expenditures, progress, general situation, etc to the City Planning Department and to the nearby neighborhood orgs.
As it happens, none of these conditions of its Conditional Use Permit (CUP) have been met for years on end.
It’s over 25 years now that this city-funded nonprofit has been receiving and spending city money but not answering to any regulatory oversight institution to track the effectiveness of the services they provide.
Why is this failed city-funded program getting any city funding at all?
Under our system of national law and order, being here undocumented is illegal. Thus, hiring an โillegalโ is akin to knowingly receiving stolen goods. When working for criminals, there is no reason to expect justice.
Our immigration enforcement issues are not going to go away under our current system of focusing on the lowest people in this shadow world.
I think sending major employers of โillegalsโ to jail would result in serious donations to the campaigns of politicians promising to make legal work permits available (I imagine pathways to citizenship would follow).
Illegally imported workers are saved and their controllers punished. Why is this not the model for illegally contracted labor?
“would result in serious donations to the campaigns of politicians promising to make legal work permits available”
Oh boy, sorry to break it to you, but this is not how this “works”. How do you think we got here in the first place? Reality check: Said donations have flown for decades so law enforcement in deep red farm land and beyond look the other way.
Ouch, you are probably right, Daniel.
“Under our system of national law and order, being here undocumented is illegal. Thus, hiring an โillegalโ is akin to knowingly receiving stolen goods.”
In exactly zero actual ways, but keep blathering…
labor is commoditized. Our government limits the “right” to work in the US to citizens and certain legal immigrants. Thus the equivalence to stolen goods, not exactly stolen but definitely illegal (and untaxable by said government.
And why do people go looking to hire “illegals”? I don’t think the employers are being altruistic. No, the only commercially sensible reason to engage in crime is to get or save money. How do these hirings save money? But getting labor at lower costs and without attendant payroll taxes, insurance payments, etc.
The real villain in these situations is not the desperate immigrant.
“The real villain in these situations is not the desperate immigrant”
The real villain is the racist Republicans who stymie immigration reforms that would make a difference deliberately and have done so for decades while they import their model wives on fraudulent “genius” Visa grants.
Please find that 19 year old and tell him to go back to Mexico and learn a trade. He’s seen that there isn’t a pot of gold here in the US.
As the article shared, wage theft has been ongoing for a long time… for decades really. Yet the two sources still manage to slam Pres Trump for this sad practice.
Perhaps the author could comment and scold the local and State govt officials that in reality have had much more to do with wage theft than the Federal Govt 3000 miles away.
As I and many others see the problem, a few score of local city council members have taken it upon themselves to intervene in the age old and complex issue of labor and wages.
By raising minimum wages throughout the Bay area, various Councils hopped on the woke bandwagon of mandated higher wages. While the typical consultants championed the higher wages, disinterested economists were there to point out how the higher wages will lead to the loss of entry.kevel jobs throughout the Bay area.
Daily news reports share the glum news if well established firms throwing in the towell and closing. Overly regulated, the business leaders say no more.
Let the private sector do what it has been doing for generations , negotiating directly with its employees. This is the only manner that will lift employment levels for all entry level workers.
If you really won’t to help immigration then you should first address the systemic racism of all people of color but your fight is only for the immigrants that crossed the Mexico s US boarders but what happened to the fight for all people of color this shouldn’t be two separate items they should be the same fight for equal right for people of color
“So far, life in the United States is nothing like Alfredo expected.”?
I wonder what he did expect? He same here illegally and is here illegally. His English will be poor or non-existent. Presumably he has little education and no specific job skills or qualifications.
Is it possible that the expectations of people like Alfredo are completely unreasonable?
I have hired a few day laborers over the years. I pay them $15 an hour and they seem happy enough. I do worry about the fact that some of them seem to drive around with no lisence or insurance.
If job skills include whining about the poor, you should be a Billionaire by now.
Maybe they should go back to their own countries.
Elon Musk and Melania included?
Are they day laborers struggling to make ends meet?
Are you able to discern the difference?
They committed VISA fraud and under current rules would be deported and not allowed to return.
Are you able to read and parse?
Doesn’t Eduardo know El Salvador is a humanitarian disaster!? How can he consider going to a country which is finally safe because they put criminals in prison!?
My first comment was meant to say โsexworkersโ, but an unnoticed autocorrect turned that to โworkersโ and made my statement nonsensical.
Doesn’t matter. You’re still doing nothing but complaining anyway. But hey, don’t forget to give yourself a pat on the back.