Real-o-thetical: Mar-A-Lago & H-2B Workers

Official White House Photo of Mar-a-Lago

Late last month, President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort ran two classified ads for winter season waitstaff.

As WaPo reports, interested American applicants would have had to find the ad on page C8 of the Palm Beach Post, prove up “3 mos recent & verifiable exp in fine dining/country club,” agree to “No tips,” and then “apply by fax.”

WaPo says this “underwhelming” effort at recruiting was “actually part of Mar-a-Lago’s efforts to hire foreign workers for those 35 jobs.” Mar-a-Lago has sought H-2B visas for those positions and others.

More bitingly, WaPo refers to the nationwide effort of seeking American workers as “ritualized failure” where the “outcome is usually a conclusion that there are no qualified Americans to hire, justifying the need for the government to issue the visas.”

All of that is fascinating – but how can you turn it into an in-class exercise? Start with the Department of Labor’s handy Fact Sheet about the recruitment obligations of employers like Mar-a-Lago. Give it to the students and ask them to think about a hospitality setting. You might consider using The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island for a hypo with less political overtones, or if you can go political without backlash, just use the Mar-a-Lago facts. Ask the students to come up with the minimum steps required to satisfy an employer’s obligations. Discuss whether and why an employer might want to do more than the minimum.

-KitJ