Bill > SCR88

Introduced Session

This resolution urges the Congress and the President of the United States to enact legislation that penalizes companies that outsource labor to foreign markets. Such legislation is critical to combat unemployment and to encourage companies to hire and invest in American workers. Companies based in the United States have increasingly opted to outsource labor to foreign countries as a means to keep costs down and to remain competitive in the domestic and global marketplace. Companies that outsource typically hire workers in emerging markets in regions of the world with lower standards of living than the United States, allowing them to pay wages that are subpar to those paid to American workers. In turn, these companies can sell their products and services at lower prices than those sourced domestically. While the outsourcing of labor may benefit a company's bottom line, it does nothing to help the 6.3 million Americans, over 225,000 of whom live in New Jersey, currently unemployed in the United States. Workers in industries such as manufacturing and computer technology, as well as those across industries employed in call centers, have been significantly impacted by the loss of American jobs due to outsourcing. According to the most recent data produced by the United States Department of Commerce, multinational enterprises based in this country employed 13.8 million people in their foreign affiliates in 2014, an increase of over 3 million outsourced workers since 2009. Half of these 13.8 million overseas jobs would nearly equal the total number of workers currently unemployed in this country. In order to reverse this corporate trend of outsourcing labor to increase profit margins, the Congress and President of the United States must push forward policies that motivate companies to hire American workers. Such initiatives should include enacting legislation that prohibits companies that outsource from receiving and benefiting from federal contracts, tax breaks, grants, or loans, as well as legislation that establishes an outsourcing tax on companies that eliminate American jobs in order to hire workers overseas at inferior wages. Through these types of penalties, Congress and the President can establish significant financial incentives for companies based in the United States to keep jobs in this country, thereby providing vital employment opportunities to the millions of Americans searching for work.

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Shirley Turner (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Labor Committee (on 02/15/2024)

Official Document