Insights and Analyses

• Wage disparities persist among California’s workers. In 2021, the median hourly wage for California's immigrant workers was lower at $24, compared to U.S.-born workers at $30. 

• Wage inequities grow wider for immigrants depending on their immigration status. Across the state, in 2021, the median hourly wage for naturalized immigrants was $28, compared to $24 for lawful residents, and $16 for undocumented immigrants.

• The Public Policy Institute of California reports that during the first quarter of 2023, the poverty rate among immigrant Californians was nearly 18%, compared to about 12% for U.S.-born Californians. The poverty rate for undocumented immigrants was even higher at nearly 30%.

• California relies on its care sector to address the needs of its growing aging population. Immigrants as well as Black and Latina women, make up a large proportion of California’s care sector—about 47% of direct care workers are immigrants. In 2023, care workers earned median hourly wages well below the statewide $25 average. These hourly wages ranged from $15.60 for home health and personal care aides to $20.10 for certified nurse assistants.

• A 2023 report by the Gender Equity Policy Institute found that in 2021, undocumented women in California were paid 58 cents for every dollar paid to all men, 44 cents for every dollar paid to white men, and 87 cents for every dollar paid to undocumented men. Nationally, undocumented women face higher rates of poverty as compared to all women (about 21% and 14%, respectively) and are more likely to lack health insurance as compared to all women (49% and nearly 8%, respectively). However, undocumented women in California are less likely to experience poverty and more likely to have health insurance compared to those in other states, indicating the importance of state policy in improving economic security.

• According to a 2024 report by the Williams Institute, California is home to approximately 211,000 Latinx LGBT immigrants, 68,800 of whom do not have green cards. Their analysis of data gathered between 2015 and 2021 from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) shows that, while most Latinx LGBT immigrants without green cards were in the workforce (93%), about 64% earn below 200% of the federal poverty level.

• A 2024 report by the Williams Institute also estimates that approximately 41,000 transgender immigrants reside in California. Their analysis of CHIS data collected between 2015 to 2021, shows that among respondents, nearly 80 percent of transgender immigrants were in the workforce. Further, about one-fourth of transgender immigrants were living in poverty.

• Estimates by the Williams Institute show that Asian LGBT immigrants comprised nearly 14% of the state’s Asian LGBT adult population. Their analysis of CHIS data collected between 2015 and 2021 also revealed that while most Asian LGBT immigrants were in the workforce, nearly one-third lived below 200% of the federal poverty level. Further, nearly 40% reported they did not have a usual source of healthcare.

• According to UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center, about 75% of California’s farmworkers are undocumented. Their analysis of 2017-2022 ACS data showed that California farmworkers have seen an increase in average annual earnings and a decrease in the average number of hours worked that is likely related to the state’s implementation of farmworker overtime protections in 2019.

Though there have been some recent policy changes to protect California’s agricultural workers, there is still more work to be done to ensure this essential workforce is given the same labor protections as other industries.

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938, agricultural workers were excluded from wage protections and overtime compensation requirements that were in place for workers in other industries. This meant that farms were not required to pay overtime to workers until they worked over 10 hours in a workday or 60 hours a week, unlike other industries where overtime is paid after 8 hours in a workday or 40 hours a week. In 2016, advocates like CAUSE supported the passage and signing of AB 1066, a bill to include agricultural workers in existing California labor law that implements protections for working hours, standard meal periods, and  overtime pay – benefits similar to what workers in other industries receive. As a result of this legislation, California became the first state to require overtime be paid to farm workers who work beyond an 8-hour day.

This policy change was a win in the fight toward addressing worker exploitation. However, much work remains to be done – a call answered by CAUSE, the Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP), and other immigrant-serving organizations in the Central Coast region. Since 2021, CAUSE and MICOP have supported a surge of advocacy by farmworkers striking for a living wage through the Alianza Campesina coalition, even as agricultural owners increase their usage of the H-2A visa program to expand the agricultural workforce. CAUSE has also worked to ensure food safety standards and adequate housing for H-2A workers, who have their housing, food, transportation, and immigration status controlled by their employer when they are working in the United States. To ensure that farmworkers have access to public resources and know their labor rights, CAUSE also recently helped to open the Farmworker Resource Program in Santa Barbara County.

These rights include not only increased wages and benefits, but protection from environmental hazards as well. The recent increase in wildfires across the state combined with the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear that there is an urgent need for further policies to expand farmworker protections. The largely immigrant farmworkers were considered essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning they could not shelter-in-place to protect themselves in the early months of the pandemic. Many farmworkers in the Central Coast are undocumented immigrants, and therefore were ineligible to receive federal COVID-19 relief stimulus checks. Although California created a fund for stimulus-excluded immigrants, the fund only covered roughly one in four of the state’s undocumented workforce. A 2020 journal article co-authored by CAUSE’s Lucas Zucker found that farmworkers in the Central Coast were made to continue working outdoors even as one of the largest-ever wildfires in California history raged in the region in 2017, and many did not even receive masks to protect themselves from smoke exposure. There were also no Spanish-language notifications of the severity of the wildfire and smoke at the time, but efforts by CAUSE have since made this vital information available to Spanish-speaking farmworkers.

Photo credit: Andrew Nixon, Capital Public Radio