As a result, she says this may push struggling growers to source more product from outside California. “Some growers do go to Yuma, Mexico,” she explains, while others will “expand more of their business to Peru, Chile, even Europe.”
As always, there are complications as new minimum wage laws are passed not just at the state level, but also down to the county and municipal levels. Fink-Weber characterizes the ‘patchwork’ of local, state, and even federal wage levels as especially complicated “for growers who operate in multiple counties,” adding they have seen individuals “working in two local areas at different wage rates.”
Pappas calls the new law “a huge concern” for the California restaurant industry, as labor generally accounts for a third of most eateries’ operating budget. “It’s something we’re working on every day; initiatives and proposals are popping up all over the place,” she says, but warns few businesses will be able to “absorb such a huge increase.”
Rinker is less worried about this increase in terms of produce pickers. “I think there’s a distinction there in terms of California agriculture,” he says. “You have minimum wage as a floor, but a lot of production is incentive-based. People working in the industry have an opportunity to earn more than minimum wage. Given that’s already there, I don’t know if this increase will affect production agriculture so much as it might affect students finding part-time work in the fast food industry.”
RESULTS AND REFLECTION
So, how did you do? If you got all the questions correct, congratulations! If you learned something new, even better. Produce represents a vast portion of the Golden State’s claim to fame. However you might choose to characterize California’s verdant fields of plenty, as ‘America’s Salad Bowl’ or the world’s top producer of grapes, the state’s suppliers are always innovating to better serve the industry and the many businesses it supports on a local, national, and worldwide basis.
Image: Shutterstock.
