FUBAR Legal System

First, the story . Now for the lazy, 9 illegalimmigrants are suing Wal-Mart for discrimination, claiming they didn't get benefits and overtime pay. First, here's a quote showing how much they made per week:

The plaintiffs say they worked at least 56 hours a week and were not paid time and a half for overtime, hours worked beyond 40 a week. They say they were paid $350-$500 a week.;

At $350 for 56 hours, that works out to $6.25 an hour, $500 for 56 hours is $8.92. You'll notice that both those are over minimum wage, so they're not getting screwed there. However the illegal workers should still be getting time and a half for work done. Personally, I don't think $8.92 an hour is bad for cleaning up a store, and I would be surprised if there was a huge difference between the illegals pay and "authorized" workers. If there is a big difference, then the contractor is paying its employees way to much in my opinion.

From what I understand in the whole Wal-Mart/Illegals thing, the workers worked for a contractor which Wal-Mart paid to clean its stores. Wal-Mart should not be liable for anything in pay disputes between the contractor and its(contractors) employees, even if they did know the contractor was employing illegals.

While I believe that foreigners (legally and illegally) in the country should be protected by our laws, persons who are in the country illegally should not be able to SUE over such things as labor laws. If they aren't allowed to work here in the first place, yet manage to find someone willing to employ them that should be good enough.

Last, while I think we should focus on employing US citizens, employing illegal immigrants doesn't hurt the economy in any way. If anything, they will work for less than any American because its a job and money, both things which they probably didn't have where ever they came from in the first place. They will spend some of money in America (all of it if they aren't saving it for friends/family still in other countries).