Employers must pay aliens

A recent ruling by Nevada's labor commissioner should be applauded by the state's workers, its businesses and even undocumented aliens -- pretty much everybody but unscrupulous employers.

Under the ruling by Labor Commissioner Terry Johnson, five workers were awarded back pay at prevailing wages for their hours on a public-works project -- even though they were undocumented workers.

Their employer had tried to argue they didn't deserve to be paid because they were undocumented. But Johnson's ruling struck at the deeper issue, which is the illegal practice by some companies of hiring immigrants at cheap wages and then looking the other way.

In this case, the issue was dollars (and not necessarily a few dollars, as the carpenters in question were supposed to be paid $35.38 an hour.) But we have seen too many times when the hiring of undocumented workers has actually endangered their lives, because the same kind of company willing to scoff at hiring laws may also look askance at safety issues.

Legal workers also should welcome Johnson's ruling, because it upholds the integrity of both their jobs and their wages. It is not unreasonable to assume there are hundreds of undocumented workers employed on public projects in Nevada -- mainly because they're willing to work cheaper.

Businesses also can get behind the ruling. They may not like prevailing wages -- which, oddly enough, are often higher than wages being paid on non-public projects -- but most of them are paying them to legitimate workers.

If the businesses who are hiring illegal workers aren't forced to pay the wages, there would be no reason to stay on the legitimate side of the law. After all, one of the theories behind the state's prevailing-wage law is to make sure one contractor doesn't have an advantage over another in bidding for contracts simply by paying low wages.