Central Coast advocates are pushing a plan to raise the minimum wage for farm workers in Santa Barbara County by $10 dollars an hour. The grassroots effort is being led by two non-profit organizations representing farmworkers.
Daniel Segura is a Santa Maria Organizer for Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, or CAUSE. He said the rising cost of living on the Central Coast is leaving farmworkers’ in a precarious situation.
“Over the last couple of years farmworkers are able to organize themselves and really come together and decide what it is that they're asking for. And ultimately the ask of $26 an hour is coming from farm workers directly,” Segura said.
The current minimum wage in the state is $16 an hour, which will go up another 50 cents in January. The fieldworking community is now taking its proposal to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, where It’s expected to meet stiff resistance from local farmers.
Claire Winemann is the president of the Growers-Shippers Association of Santa Barabara and San Luis Obispo Counties. She said the economic impacts to the region could outweigh the benefits of the wage increase.
“The employee wages makes up, in many cases, the majority, or depending on the individual situation, at least between 30 to 50% or more of operating costs in the county and that's already a significant investment. So when we see a 62% increase, it's hard to make those numbers work,” Wineman said.
The Board of Supervisors created an ad-hoc committee to discuss farmworker conditions which will include discussion about wages.
