Hiring Immigrants
• Eleven (11) percent of small businesses have immigrants on the payroll. The number is twice as large among those employing 20 or more people as those employing nine or fewer.
• The overwhelming majority of small employers think that they have no need for information or advice about the legal requirements for hiring employees generally or immigrants specifically.
• Though required, just 36 percent of small employers could recall completing an I-9 form in the last three years.
• A driver’s license is far and away the most common form that prospective employees use to demonstrate they are who they say they are. Ninety-two (92) percent of small employers who recall completing an I-9 form indicate that a driver’s license was the ID most frequently used for identification purposes.
• The most common document prospective employees use to prove they are eligible to work is a Social Security card. However, just 48 percent of small employers report that it is the most common. The remainder cite various other documents. Twenty-seven (27) percent could not identify any document as being the single most common.
• Eighty (80) percent of small employers who recall filling out an I-9 form in the last three years made photocopies of the documents presented by the new hire, though they are not required to do so. Copying the documents is relatively easy as 88 percent have a copy machine in their place of business. Of those who do not, 88 percent have access to one within five minutes distance.
• Nine percent of small employers who recall completing an I-9 form in the last three years think they have been presented false ID to obtain employment.
• Small employers often start their employees soon after hire, making proposals for waiting periods prior to an employee starting work disruptive to small business. Twenty-seven (27) percent typically start their people within 24 hours of hire. Another 25 percent sometimes do. The result is that half of small employers at least sometimes start new employees within 24 hours of hire.
• Eleven (11) percent of small businesses currently employ one or more immigrants. Twenty (20) percent hired “day labor” for their business in the last year.
• Three of four small, employing businesses would not be affected by an increase in H1B visas. Half of the remainder would be helped by an increase in the number of those visas. But the other half would be damaged by it.
• Four of five small, employing businesses would not be affected by an increase in H2B visas. As with H1B visas, half of the remainder would be helped by an increase in the number of those visas. But the other half would be damaged by it.
