- Author: Ria DeBiase, Communications Director, Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics
After AB 1066, ag workers see average hours, wages fall
Proponents of California's agricultural overtime law, AB 1066, have called it a victory for farmworkers, while critics have asserted that it will harm the very people it was designed to protect. New research by Alexandra Hill, UC Cooperative Extension specialist and assistant professor in UC Berkeley's Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, shows that, on average, there has been a decrease in worker hours and wages.
Her estimates suggest that in the first two years of its implementation, California's farmworkers worked a total of 15,000 to 45,000 fewer hours and earned a total of $6 million to $9 million less on their weekly paychecks than they would have without this law in place.
In 2016, California passed Assembly Bill 1066, legislation that removed existing overtime exemptions for farmworkers in the Fair Labor Standards Act. The FLSA is the federal law that mandates many employment conditions, including overtime standards. In non-exempt industries, it requires that employers pay 1.5 times an employee's regular pay rate for any hours worked beyond 40 hours per week.
Prior to AB 1066, agricultural workers in California were entitled to overtime pay for hours worked beyond 60 hours per week, but AB 1066 changed this beginning in 2019. The law mandated a gradual phase-in (over four years) of reduced overtime thresholds (lowering the weekly hours threshold by 5 hours/week each year) until agricultural employees are subject to the same overtime standards as workers in other industries (40 hours/week).
Many farmers feared that this new policy would drive food prices up, push them out of business, or force a faster transition to mechanization. Most reported that they would reduce hours for individual workers to remain below the new overtime standards and avoid paying the higher rates.
However, media, advocacy groups, and others heralded the law as a major win for farmworkers, as it would provide workers with more fair compensation for long workweeks. While long-term effects of the law for farmers and farmworkers remain to be seen, Hill's work sheds light on the early effects of the law on worker hours and earnings.
Using worker-reported hours from the National Agricultural Workers Survey both before and in the two years after the law went into effect (2019 and 2020), economist Hill explored the effects of AB 1066. Overall, she finds that worker hours and earnings decreased as an effect of the legislation.
Her work highlights that the share of workers working 56–60 hours/week, just below the old overtime threshold, decreased by roughly half. Most of these workers shifted to working fewer hours; the share working 46–50 hours/week, just below the new (as of 2020) overtime threshold, increased by roughly one-third. She found similar reductions in worker earnings.
The share of the workforce with higher weekly earnings (between $600 and $800/week) decreased by roughly one-third, with most of these workers shifting into a lower earnings bracket of $400–$500/week. These changes in hours and pay are consistent with employers behaving as they claimed they would – by cutting hours to avoid paying overtime rates.
Hill notes that these decreases in average wages and hours may be positive for those who want more leisure time and may – due to shorter workdays and weeks – improve workplace safety. However, she also warns that this can be detrimental for “workers and their families who were depending on this lost income to cover living expenses (and who) may now need to seek out second employment opportunities, negating these other benefits and adding the inconvenience of traveling between jobs.”
To learn more about the effects of AB 1066 on California farmworkers, read the full article by Hill: “California's Overtime Law for Agricultural Workers: What Happened to Worker Hours and Pay?” online at https://giannini.ucop.edu/publications/are-update.
ARE Update is a bimonthly magazine published by the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics to educate policymakers and agribusiness professionals about new research or analysis of important topics in agricultural and resource economics. Articles are written by Giannini Foundation members, including University of California faculty and Cooperative Extension specialists in agricultural and resource economics, and university graduate students. Learn more about the Giannini Foundation and its publications at https://giannini.ucop.edu.
/h3>- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Better access to health care and safety net programs would help
Farmworkers are a crucial link in our food supply chain, a fact that came sharply into focus during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. To keep these essential workers healthy, there is a need for more data on farmworkers' health. A new study published by University of California scientists looks beyond work-related health concerns such as heat and pesticide exposure to the general health of the people who help plant, nurture and harvest food in California.
“The study findings confirm the high chronic-disease burden in a workforce that is considered essential but lacks adequate access to health care and safety net programs,” said Susana Matias, lead author and UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Berkeley Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology. “This is a concern because California needs a healthy farmworker workforce. These workers are key to putting food on our tables and should be protected and supported as any other California worker.”
After reading the study, an advocate for women farmworkers said she sees opportunities to enhance farmworkers' health by improving their working conditions by enacting policy governing work permits; childcare; pest management; unemployment benefits; access to healthy and affordable food; and safe, affordable housing.
The data in the study may be useful to UC ANR colleagues who work with farmers.
“I hope this paper increases awareness of the health situation of this workforce and how that could affect agricultural outcomes, in particular for labor intensive crops, for example,” Matias said. “Several of my nutrition colleagues are already reaching out and serving this population, but I hope that others in ANR can also keep a worker-centered approach in their extension work with farms of all sizes.”
To see a broader perspective of farmworker health, Matias analyzed data from three studies by Marc Schenker, UC Davis physician and professor emeritus. Schenker's studies examined farmworkers' general health, occupational injuries and important causes of illness and disease. Causes or so-called “social determinants” of disease include low income, food insecurity, undocumented immigration status, and poor housing conditions.
“Those social determinants are particularly negative and impact disease outcomes in the farmworker population,” Schenker said. “Too often farmworkers don't have the benefits of other working populations, including adequate health care. It is hoped that recognition of this situation can lead to addressing these deficiencies and an improvement in farmworker health.”
Irene de Barraicua, director of operations and communications for Lideres Campesinas, said the study relates to much of the work her organization does advocating for women farmworkers. She sees opportunities to enhance farmworkers' health by improving their working conditions by enacting policy governing work permits; child care; pest management; unemployment benefits; access to healthy and affordable food; and safe, affordable housing.
“The article and studies emphasize findings that call for higher salaries, better working conditions, more worker rights and access to healthcare,” de Barraicua said. “From these findings, we can also gather that the health of farmworkers is impacted by various stress factors related to poverty, excruciating and unsafe work conditions, and lack of or costly childcare to name a few.”
Matias found that female farmworkers were at higher risk of obesity and larger waist circumference, while male farmworkers were at higher risk of high blood pressure and high total cholesterol.
“These differences in chronic health risks between farmworker men and women suggests that clinical and public health responses might need to be sex-specific,” said Matias, who is also co-associate faculty director at the Berkeley Food Institute.
The studies were conducted with farmworkers in Mendota, Oxnard and Watsonville. Matias would like to expand the scope to assess the health of farmworkers statewide.
“Our study is not representative of other regions of the state,” Matias said. “A representative survey is urgently needed in California to better identify and quantify the health problems in this population, and to provide the services needed by these essential workers.”
“The article ‘The Chronic Disease Burden Among Latino Farmworkers in California' clearly brings to the forefront very important sociodemographic and socioeconomic ‘gaps' unique to farmworkers, an essential segment of our population and workforce,” said de Barraicua of Lideres Campesinas.
“We need to enact policy that facilitates access to health care including mental health services; easily accessible, free rural and mobile clinics; telehealth services, essentially unrestricted healthcare coverage for all,” de Barraicua said, adding that trusted community health workers who know the farmworkers' culture and speak their language are needed.
She also noted the growing population of indigenous Mexican farmworkers who face greater challenges related to language access, limited education and immigration status.
The article, co-authored by Matias, Schenker, UC Berkeley postdoctoral researcher Caitlin French and student Alexander Gomez-Lara, is published in Frontiers in Public Health.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Better access to health care and safety net programs would help
Farmworkers are a crucial link in our food supply chain, a fact that came sharply into focus during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. To keep these essential workers healthy, there is a need for more data on farmworkers' health. A new study published by University of California scientists looks beyond work-related health concerns such as heat and pesticide exposure to the general health of the people who help plant, nurture and harvest food in California.
“The study findings confirm the high chronic-disease burden in a workforce that is considered essential but lacks adequate access to health care and safety net programs,” said Susana Matias, lead author and UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Berkeley Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology. “This is a concern because California needs a healthy farmworker workforce. These workers are key to putting food on our tables and should be protected and supported as any other California worker.”
After reading the study, an advocate for women farmworkers said she sees opportunities to enhance farmworkers' health by improving their working conditions by enacting policy governing work permits; childcare; pest management; unemployment benefits; access to healthy and affordable food; and safe, affordable housing.
To see a broader perspective of farmworker health, Matias analyzed data from three studies by Marc Schenker, UC Davis physician and professor emeritus. Schenker's studies examined farmworkers' general health, occupational injuries and important causes of illness and disease. Causes or so-called “social determinants” of disease include low income, food insecurity, undocumented immigration status, and poor housing conditions.
“Those social determinants are particularly negative and impact disease outcomes in the farmworker population,” Schenker said. “Too often farmworkers don't have the benefits of other working populations, including adequate health care. It is hoped that recognition of this situation can lead to addressing these deficiencies and an improvement in farmworker health.”
Irene de Barraicua, director of operations and communications for Lideres Campesinas, said the study relates to much of the work her organization does advocating for women farmworkers.
“The article and studies emphasize findings that call for higher salaries, better working conditions, more worker rights and access to healthcare,” de Barraicua said. “From these findings, we can also gather that the health of farmworkers is impacted by various stress factors related to poverty, excruciating and unsafe work conditions, and lack of or costly childcare to name a few.”
Matias found that female farmworkers were at higher risk of obesity and larger waist circumference, while male farmworkers were at higher risk of high blood pressure and high total cholesterol.
“These differences in chronic health risks between farmworker men and women suggests that clinical and public health responses might need to be sex-specific,” said Matias, who is also co-associate faculty director at the Berkeley Food Institute.
The studies were conducted with farmworkers in Mendota, Oxnard and Watsonville. Matias would like to expand the scope to assess the health of farmworkers statewide.
“Our study is not representative of other regions of the state,” Matias said. “A representative survey is urgently needed in California to better identify and quantify the health problems in this population, and to provide the services needed by these essential workers.”
“The article ‘The Chronic Disease Burden Among Latino Farmworkers in California' clearly brings to the forefront very important sociodemographic and socioeconomic ‘gaps' unique to farmworkers, an essential segment of our population and workforce,” said de Barraicua of Lideres Campesinas.
“We need to enact policy that facilitates access to health care including mental health services; easily accessible, free rural and mobile clinics; telehealth services, essentially unrestricted healthcare coverage for all,” de Barraicua said, adding that trusted community health workers who know the farmworkers' culture and speak their language are needed.
She also noted the growing population of indigenous Mexican farmworkers and face greater challenges related to language access, limited education and immigration status.
The article, co-authored by Matias, Schenker, UC Berkeley postdoctoral researcher Caitlin French and student Alexander Gomez-Lara, is published in Frontiers in Public Health.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC ANR partners with state and local organizations to improve urban communities. This story is one in a series about the impact of these partnerships.
The Farmworker Institute of Education and Leadership Development (FIELD), founded by Cesar Chavez in 1978, is dedicated to strengthening communities and the lives of farmworkers and immigrants in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys.
In Kern County, they are partnering with UC Cooperative Extension's CalFresh Healthy Living, UC program to ensure families have the knowledge and skills they need to buy and prepare food that will help prevent chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, and prevent obesity.
Each year, UCCE nutrition education supervisor Beatriz Rojas and UCCE nutrition education specialist Bea Ramirez present students in the program with eight free lessons on nutrition, physical activity and healthy living. Beginning in March 2020, due to the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders, participants attended classes online, and the Kern County CalFresh Healthy Living, UC staff adapted their classes to an online platform.
FIELD requested nutrition classes for their 32 adult students during the summer session.
“We provided the students with lesson packets and followed up with one-on-one calls to review each lesson,” Rojas said. “The participants received vital information on how to keep themselves and their families fit and healthy, save money at the grocery store, make healthy food choices and prepare tasty meals.”
In one of the phone calls, a participant mentioned that she started to incorporate 30 to 40 minutes of stationary bike riding in her daily routine and started her family on this activity as well.
“Ever since I started the nutrition class, it has taught me how to read the nutrition facts label when I go to the store, also how to choose the right oil, meat and dairy,” the student said. “My family and I do a lot more physical activity at home and we eat healthier.”
The CalFresh Healthy Living, UC program and other UC ANR statewide programs rely on donor contributions. To learn more about CalFresh Healthy Living, UC and how to support programs in your area, visit the UC Youth, Families and Communities program website.
- Author: NBC News by Ludwig Hurtado
"We kept our languages hidden," says a host from Central California's Radio Indígena 94.1, "but no longer." The shows appeal to farmers of indigenous origin.
Josefino Alvarado, a California farm worker, describes his typical morning picking blueberries at a Ventura County farm.
As the sun beats down on him and his fellow workers, a crackle of static hums at their feet. “Hola mi gente,” (Hello, my people) a voice calls out from the radio's speakers in Spanish. Then, “tanìndíí,” which means ‘good morning' in Mixteco.
On this farm and most of the farms nearby, workers have their radios tuned into the same station: 94.1, Radio Indígena.
Radio Indígena (indígena means indigenous in Spanish) is one of the first indigenous Mexican radio stations in the United States. The community-run station boasts 40 hours of original programming every week, broadcasting music and talk shows in a handful of indigenous languages, as well as Spanish programming too.
The station is a welcome cultural lifeline for thousands of farm workers who speak Mixteco or other indigenous Central American languages.
“Listening to it is a point of pride,” Alvarado, who is a frequent listener, said. While he only understands Spanish and Mixteco, he often will listen to some of Radio Indígena's shows in Zapoteco, Triqui, and Nahuatl. Even if he doesn't understand them, he said he's proud to hear the languages being kept alive on the airwaves.
Alvarado, who moved to the U.S. in 1997, was born and raised in the city of Oaxaca in central Mexico, where he and his family learned Mixteco as their first language.
Although Mixteco has come into the national spotlight thanks to the Academy Award-winning film, Roma, the language is still virtually unknown to the general population.
Mixteco or Mixtec is spoken in the central region of Mexico often referred to as “La Mixteca” — which includes parts of Oaxaca, Puebla and Guerrero. Mixteco is part of a group of Mesoamerican languages whose origins go back 10,000 years. There are many variations of Mixteco, and the dialects have also absorbed some Spanish and English words.
Experts say that migration and economic pressure have led these languages to extinction both in their home countries and the U.S. Due to economic and cultural pressure in Mexico, many Mixtec communities are shifting to Spanish. UNESCO considers almost half of Mixteco's 50 dialects to be either severely endangered or at risk of endangerment.
According to the 2010 census, over 685,000 Latinos in the U.S. identified themselves as American Indian, up from around 400,000 in 2000. But experts agree that the actual number of indigenous Latinos in the U.S. is much higher than estimated because many don't report to the census due to stigma and immigration status.
AMONG FARM WORKERS, A SIZABLE INDIGENOUS PRESENCE
Alvarado is not alone. Ventura County is home to an estimated 20,000 indigenous people from southern Mexico. Due to soil erosion in the ancestral farmlands of the Mixteca region, many Mixtecs have been drawn to California in search of agricultural work.
About one-third of farm workers in California speak indigenous languages from southern Mexico, including Triqui and Mixteco. Many of them don't speak Spanish or English.
“There's a lot of radio stations in Oxnard, but they just play music,” said Roberto Jesús, who listens to the show every morning as he drives to work, getting informed about the news and about his legal rights as an immigrant.
Jesús, who is from the Mexican state of Guerrero, works in the strawberry fields of Ventura County. Like most from his community of San Rafael, Jesús spoke Mixteco and it was a struggle just to learn Spanish as a second language. The prospects of learning English, he said, were virtually impossible.
In the U.S., Mixtecs face barriers because of their limited English and sometimes limited Spanish. This leaves many of them vulnerable to exploitation and discrimination.
That's why Radio Indígena came about. Radio Indígena is hosted and run by the Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP), a nonprofit organization formed to provide health outreach, humanitarian support and language interpretation to this underserved and often unnoticed community.
“There are very few ways for us to receive information in our own language,” Arcenio Lopez, executive director of MICOP and Radio Indígena, said. The project began in 2014 as a community radio station that only lived online, but after years of fundraising, the station finally reached FM airwaves in 2017.
Source: Published originally on nbcnews.com, A radio station becomes a lifeline for endangered Mexican, Central American indigenous languages, by Ludwig Hurtado, April 8, 2019.