> They also don't have millions of illegal immigrants with no federal labor protection driving wages down internally.

Oh, bs. There's plenty plenty access to cheap labor (intra EU migration, external immigration, asylees with work permits). The minimum wage is low enough to not matter much in most cases.

I could go out right now and fill up a pickup truck with people willing to do a hard days work for less than minimum wage by driving a couple miles to the Home Depot where they hang out all day hoping for work. If I spoke Spanish well enough I could probably get some fairly skilled workers too who will work for a lot less than "standard wage".

So? That's not a US only problem. Nor is it particularly related to illegal immigration. In a lot of areas of Germany you could do similar, except with a bit less uniformity about which language skill are needed.

well the workers in Germany don't seem to be getting much of the reward do they?