Sonoma County farmworkers and the 2017 and 2019 wildfires

Martin Bennett, SONOMA COUNTY GAZETTE

Last year the trade publication Wine Enthusiast recognized Sonoma County as the ‘Wine Region of the Year,’ and the Sonoma County Winegrowers Association announced that 99 percent of the county vineyards achieved their ‘sustainability’ certification. But the county’s farmworkers — who produce the wealth of wine country — are mostly invisible to the public. Winegrowers and the media rarely recognize the actual value of their labor, and their contribution to the local economy is seldom acknowledged.

Winegrowers and the media rarely recognize the actual value of their labor, and their contribution to the local economy is seldom acknowledged. Image: pxhere.com-Creative Commons CC0

Winegrowers and the media rarely recognize the actual value of their labor, and their contribution to the local economy is seldom acknowledged. Image: pxhere.com-Creative Commons CC0
Most county farmworkers do not earn a living wage nor receive employer-provided health insurance, lack access to affordable housing, and confront dangerous health and safety conditions on the job. A just, equitable and, sustainable recovery from the 2017 and 2019 wildfires must include new public policy and grower initiatives to improve the economic security and public health of farmworkers.

Nine out of 10 Sonoma County farmworkers are employed in the wine industry. Farm labor analyst Don Villarejo examined the U.S. Department of Agriculture 2017 Census and calculated the average hourly wage for a county farmworker employed directly by a farm operator for at least 150 days was $15.43 an hour; the weighted annual average income of all farmworkers who were used by growers and farm labor contractors was $21,920–these figures are likely slightly higher today due to recent increases in the minimum wage and new overtime requirements for farmworkers.

The Department of Labor National Agricultural Survey reports that few California farmworkers are employed full-time in agriculture: on average, they work just 36 weeks annually. UC Davis economist Phillip Martin calculated that in 2015 the average California farmworker, employed primarily in agriculture, earned only $20,500 annually. Three out of four California farmworkers had only one employer and, just 15 percent crossed the border or migrated between California agricultural regions.

Read more at https://www.sonomacountygazette.com/sonoma-county-news/sonoma-county-farmworkers-and-a-just-recovery