How many undocumented workers are paid off the books
Executive summary
There is no authoritative count of how many undocumented workers are paid “off the books”; available sources instead offer estimates of the total undocumented population and of how many unauthorized immigrants work and pay taxes, while explicitly noting data gaps and undercounts that prevent a precise tally of informal, untaxed employment [1] [2] [3]. Using those labor‑force estimates frames the universe from which “off‑the‑books” employment must come: roughly 8–10 million undocumented workers are likely in U.S. jobs, but how many of those receive cash-only pay with no withholding is not measured directly in public data [4] [5] [6].
1. What the hard numbers say about the undocumented workforce
Most reputable summaries place the unauthorized population around 11 million people and estimate that the large majority are economically active, with between roughly 8.5 million and 9.7 million undocumented immigrants participating in the U.S. labor market in recent estimates [4] [6]. Specialized studies and data releases have counted millions of jobs filled by unauthorized workers—figures such as 8.5 million jobs and the assertion that unauthorized immigrants make up roughly 5–6 percent of the workforce appear across sources [4] [5] [1].
2. Why “off‑the‑books” is not directly measurable in available data
Surveys and administrative sources that underpin those headcounts—Census/ACS, the CPS and tax filings—are poorly suited to directly capture the share of workers paid entirely in cash without payroll records, and analysts explicitly warn of undercounts in sectors like agriculture and seasonal work where informal pay is common [5] [1]. Economists and policy labs therefore model tax payments and payroll contributions as proxies for formal employment rather than reporting a concrete number of cash‑only workers [3] [7].
3. Evidence that many undocumented workers still appear on payrolls
Multiple tax‑analysis pieces estimate substantial federal, state, and local tax payments by undocumented workers—estimates include roughly $66 billion in federal taxes in 2023 and about $96.7 billion across all levels in 2022—evidence that a large share of unauthorized workers are paid through payroll systems or file with ITINs [3] [7]. Those figures undercut simple assumptions that most undocumented labor is informal, but they do not imply every undocumented worker is paid on the books [2] [8].
4. The practical and political reasons the answer varies
Employers decide whether to withhold taxes and provide W‑2s or to pay “under the table,” and policy shifts such as IRS‑ICE data‑sharing proposals could change filing behavior and the prevalence of off‑the‑books work—outcomes modeled by researchers but not yet measurable in real time [3] [8]. Advocates emphasize that many undocumented workers already pay taxes and are integrated into payroll systems [2] [7], while critics and some policymakers highlight potential tax and enforcement gaps that informal pay can create [9].
5. Bottom line and what can be said with confidence
A defensible direct answer is this: there is no reliable, published count of how many undocumented workers are paid entirely off the books; the best available anchors are that about 8–10 million unauthorized immigrants are working in the U.S., many of whom pay taxes and appear in payroll estimates, and that researchers explicitly caution that informal pay is both present and difficult to quantify, especially in agriculture and other high‑contact industries [4] [5] [3] [1]. Any numeric claim about the share paid entirely in cash would therefore be speculative beyond the documented labor‑force and tax‑payment estimates.