Philip Martin: plmartin@ucdavis.edu

Farm Labor: 2015
Highlights

• Average employ, unique workers, peak/trough

• Ave ag employ: US 1.2 million; CA 400,000

• CA: 2 farm workers for each FTE ag job, so 

400,000 FTE jobs = 800,000 California workers. 2/3 

of CA FWs = foreign born, & 2/3 of FB farm workers 

= unauthorized, so CA 2/3 unauthorized 

• Employer 4 S responses to tight labor

– Satisfy: wages, super training—growers think not much

– Stretch: mechanical aids, change production practices

– Substitute: labor-saving mechanization

– Supplement: H-2A workers, but housing

– Most employers do all 4—no one knows best combination
CA since 2007: more workers brought to farms by crop 

support (FLCs) than hired directly. Gap is widening
Crop support:

$4.5 billion or 

43% of $10.5 

billion in CA ag 

wages paid in 

2012 (QCEW); 

55% of crop 

support wages 

paid by FLCs
Fruit: $2.5 billion or 

24% of California 

ag wages paid in 

2012
Vegetables: $1 

billion or 10% of 

ag wages paid
Nursery: $800 

million or 8%

Dairy: $600 

million or 6%

Big 5 = 95% of 

CA ag wages
Hired Crop Workers

• Young, male & born in Mexico, but changing

– Fewer newcomers (workers in US less than 1 year). 

From 20% in 2000 to 2% today. Result: average age 

(37) & weeks of farm work (35) up

– 50% of all crop workers, & 2/3 of foreign born farm 

workers, are unauthorized. CA has > % unauthorized 

because more CA farm workers are foreign born, 98%, 

versus rest of US, 58% 

• Employ and earns: more weeks, higher wages

– Average $9.31/hour across US; $9.22 in CA in 2012

– 35 weeks of farm work + 7 weeks of nonfarm work: 42 

weeks, or close to 48 weeks full-time 

– Annual earnings average $15,000-$17,000/year

• Farm work more like nonfarm work: live off the farm, 

commute to work, have 1 farm employer
Employers 2015: 4 S’s

• Satisfy current farm workers with higher wages, 

improved benefits and better trained supervisors. 

Attract new workers or shift workers between 

farms? 

• Stretch the current labor force with mechanical 

aids that increase productivity: conveyor belts in 

fields, dwarf trees. How fast to deploy?

• Substitute: labor-saving mechanization in raisins, 

olives, pre-harvest thinning and weeding, new 

seeds: high-stalk broccoli. Will wages keep rising 

to justify investments that take time to perfect?

• Supplement the labor force with H-2As, especially 

multi-area growers who use H-2As in border areas. 

Why invest in housing if Congress may enact a nohousing program?
Satisfy: wages, benefits, supervisor training & respect

Most farmers: satisfy will not ENLARGE labor force
Stretch: mechanical aids to raise worker productivity
Substitute: mechanization in lives, carrots, tomatoes, nursery
Supplement with H-2A workers: 75,000 FY07, 130,000 FY15 
AEWRs 2015: $10.32 in NC, $12.42 in WA, $11.33 in CA

H-2As concentrated in brown states with lowest AEWRs
WA H-2As: 4,400 in 2012; 9,000 in 2014

• H-2A program: employers must (1) try to recruit 

US workers, (2) provide housing, (3) pay AEWR 

• WFLA: employer association = co-employer of H2As. Shift H-2As between employers

– WA: direct hires, easier to build & operate housing

– Saddle labor demand: June-July peak for cherries & 

Sept-Oct apples; average farm employment of 88,000, or 

1⁄4 average of California

• 2014 Apples: 140 million 40-lb boxes (130 mil in 

2012). Pickers average 6,000 pounds or 150 

boxes/day for 65 days. Perhaps 20,000 to 25,000, 

& H-2A = up to half of apple pickers (not all apple 

pickers are H-2A, but almost all H-2As pick apples)

• Spring 2015: destroy $100 million worth of apples
CA H-2As: 3,000 in 2012, 6,000 in 2014 

• CA: many vegetable firms operate year-round. 

Leafy green vegetables in Yuma, SJV, & Salinas

– Border labor force is legal

– Bring H-2As to Salinas: move from motels to FW 

housing? (T&A: $8 million for housing for 800 workers in 

Spreckels, $10,000 per bed)

– Largest CA H-2A user: Sierra-Cascade strawberry 

nursery (1,300 H-2As in Tulelake)

• H-2A expansion: led by coastal vegetable 

growers, not SJV fruit industry. Half of CA farm 

labor is in SJV, where fruit industry is concentrated, 

& there is less grower-shipper integration

• Some shippers: increase imports, esp of Mexican 

berries
Summary 1

• Average farm employment up as expansion offsets 

mechanization. Berries up as raisins mechanize

• Farm workers: fewer new entrants & aging, settled 

farm workforce

• Employer responses to fewer newcomers

– Satisfy: stay longer vs new workers 

– Stretch: Labor-stretching mechanical aids

– Substitute: Labor-saving mechanization

– Supplement: H-2A workers; try to change rules

• Drought 2015: ag water use down 

– from 33 mil acre feet to 30 million acre feet, 

down 10%

– irrigated acreage down 7%, ag job growth slows
Summary 2

• Farming for workers versus farming for yield

– Re-organize work to attract & keep workers 

versus maximize production & assume 

seasonal workers will be available

– Change crop characteristics to make farm work 

easier, talk-stalk broccoli, Frescada lettuce, 

brilliant White Cauliflower 

• H-2A = “loyal workers.” H-2As do not switch 

employers to earn 5 cents more. E-Z H-2A could 

“lock-in” labor supply at cost of transport, housing 

etc

• Which of the 4 S’s takes priority? What variance 

by commodities and areas?