Prevailing Wage Law Applies to Undocumented Aliens

June 13, 2007 by Beeson Tayer & Bodine

A California Court of Appeal has ruled that California’s prevailing wage laws apply to undocumented aliens. In the case of Reyes v. Van Elk, Ltd, 148 Cal.App.4th 604, four workers sued their employer for failure to pay prevailing wage on a public works project. The trial court granted summary judgment for the employer, ruling that as undocumented aliens the workers did not have standing to sue. To reach this result, the trial court concluded that California statutes making immigration status irrelevant to certain claims were preempted by federal immigration laws.

On appeal, the employees argued that all residents of California are entitled to the protection of California labor and employment laws regardless of immigration status. The Court of Appeal agreed, holding that the Federal Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) does not expressly or implicitly preempt state prevailing wage laws.

The Court observed that the ultimate goal of the IRCA is to control illegal immigration into the United States by prohibiting the employment of unauthorized aliens. Allowing employers to hire undocumented workers and pay them less than the wage mandated by statute, the Court noted, would provide a strong incentive for the employers to hire workers in violation of IRCA.

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