FAQ's
- How many farmworkers are there in the United States?
- What is the difference between seasonal and migrant farmworkers?
- Who are the farmworkers in the United States?
- What is the typical age-range of United States farmworkers?
- How many female farmworkers are there in the United States?
- Are the majority of migrant farmworkers unaccompanied? Or do they travel with their families?
- What is the most common crop that farmworkers harvest?
- What is the average annual wage of farmworkers?
- Which states employ the most farmworkers?
- What is the legal status of farmworkers in the United States?
How many farmworkers are there in the United States?
Due to the seasonal, migratory nature of farm work, it is difficult to provide an exact number of farmworkers in the United States. Government and independent surveys and reports estimate that there are anywhere from two to four million farmworkers and dependants in the US. In 1993 the Commission on Agricultural Workers estimated there were 2.5 million farmworkers in the US, approximately two-thirds of whom were crop workers.1 This would imply that about 1.6 million farmworkers were providing seasonal fieldwork. The US Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey estimated that there were 2,080,000 farmworker dependants traveling with the workers in 1997, bringing the total estimate to approximately 3.7 million people.2
What is the difference between seasonal and migrant farmworkers?
Farmworkers are typically either seasonal workers employed in agricultural work in their area during harvests, or they are migrant workers that travel long distances from a home base, often outside the country, to work one or more agricultural jobs for a portion of the year. By definition, a migrant farmworker is an individual "whose principle employment is seasonal agriculture and who travels and lives in temporary housing." Nearly 40% of migrant workers are "shuttle migrants",; who shuttle from their residence to do work in one area of the US. "Follow-the crop" migrants move with the crops and account for approximately 17% of the migrant population. Most migrant workers are foreign-born. By definition, a seasonal farmworker is an individual "whose principle employment is agricultural labor but who is a permanent resident of a community and does not move into temporary housing when employed in farm work." The majority of seasonal farmworkers are US born. Seasonal farmworkers represent 44% of farmworkers in the US.3
Who are the farmworkers in the United States?
According to the US Department of Labor’s 2000 National Agricultural Workers Survey, 77% 4 of the farmworkers surveyed identified as "US born white"; 2% identified as "Latin American born"; 2% as "other US born"; 1% as "US born African Americans"; 1% as "Asian born"; and 1% as "US foreign born". Please note that the Survey and numbers do not include H2-A guestworkers, who are predominantly Mexican.5 The USDA Economic Research Service, taking their data from the 2000 Current Population Survey (CPS), reports that 46% of hired farmworkers identified as Hispanic.6 In 2002 ERIC Digest issued the following statement on the discrepancies in the statistics cited: "CPS has no specific data about migrant farmworkers; and some statistical discrepancies were inevitable if directly comparing CPS with NAWS. Nevertheless, farmworkers’ basic characteristics were similar as portrayed in these two sources. Compared with all wage and salary workers, CPS data shows that hired farmworkers were predominantly Latino, young, unmarried, poorly educated, and noncitizens." 7
What is the typical age-range of US farmworkers?
Seventy-nine percent (79%) of farmworkers participating in the US Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey in 2000 were between the ages of 18 and 44, with an average age of 31, and a median age of 29.8 The 2000 Current Population Survey cites a median age of 35, with 49% of all farmworkers under that age. 9
How many female farmworkers are there in the US?
The percentage of female farmworkers in the US has been in decline over the years. According to the 2000 National Agricultural Workers Survey, about 20% of farmworkers surveyed were women, confirmed with very close statistics from the 2000 Current Population Survey. The proportion of women working in farm labor is also higher in the Northeast than any other region.10 Female farmworkers were more likely to be US-born than their male counterparts (34% versus 15%). Female farmworkers were also found to be older on average than their male counterparts.
Are the majority of migrant farmworkers unaccompanied? Or do they travel with their families?
According to the statistics, approximately 52% of farmworkers are married. 42% of those married are not living with their families, almost all of whom are residents of Mexico. Female farmworkers, however, are more likely to be married than their male counterparts (60% vs. 50%). Nearly all married farmworker women live with their spouses as opposed to only one-half of the married men. Further, 91% of farmworker mothers live with their children versus 42% of farmworker fathers.11 One can infer from the statistics that a significant portion of farmworker men that migrate are either single or leaving their families at their home base while they travel to make the seasonal agricultural income. They also suggest that most of the women who migrate do so with their families, making the mother a central factor in the lives of migrant children.
What is the most common crop that farmworkers harvest?
Crops that bruise easily, like fruits and vegetables, are still picked and packaged by hand. Easily bruised crops may include: apples, asparagus, beans, blueberries, cantaloupe, cherries, chilies, cucumber, eggplant, grapes, melons, mushrooms, onions, oranges, peas, peaches, peanuts, peppers, pickles, pumpkins, raspberries, squash, strawberries, sugar beets, tobacco, and tomatoes.12 Sturdier crops like grain are largely harvested by machine. While the West and Northeast employ farmworkers typically in fruit, vegetable, and horticulture crops, the hiring of farm labor in the Midwest is dominated by livestock production.13 Farmworkers are also commonly employed in poultry, meat, and egg processing.
What is the average annual wage of a farmworker?
According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Survey (NASS), the average wage of a farmworker in October of 2000 was $8.29 per hour, with fieldworkers earning an average of $7.74. In April of 2003, those wages had only risen by $0.87 and $0.66 per hour respectively.14 A report on the findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), issued by the Department of Labor in March of 2000, made reference to a negative pattern in farmworkers’ wages. While the economy was experiencing widespread growth in the 1990’s, farmworkers wages lost significant ground to jobs in other sectors. Although their average hourly wages increased from $5.24 in 1989 to $6.18 in 1998, the total increase was only 18% as compared with a 32% increase experienced over that period by non-agricultural workers. When adjusted for inflation, farmworkers actually suffered an 11% loss in purchasing power over the decade.15
A 1997 NAWS study reported that 75% of farmworkers earned under $10,000 annually and that 3 out of 5 farmworker families lived in poverty by US standards. Data collected by a Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the Census Bureau told a similar story, reporting that in 1999, of the estimated 585,000 hired farmworkers 25 years and older, 47% earned incomes under the poverty line. Representing a percentage of the country’s working poor; the proportion of full-time, low wage earners was higher among farmworkers than any other job except those in private households and non-protective services.16 It is of note that farmworker women earned even less than their male counterparts on average. Only one-in-ten women earned more than $10,000 in farm work whereas 2-in-10 men did.17
Which states employ the most farmworkers?
A 2000 report by the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) found that half of its reported hired farmworkers were found in five states: California (30%), Texas (10%), Florida (6%), New York (4%) and North Carolina (3%).18 The top three states cited by the ERS were also among the top five spenders on crop labor in a 1992 Department of Labor census. California was by far the biggest employer spending $3,418,724,096 in 1992; Florida comes in second for 1992 at $1,189,964,252. Texas holds the fourth position at $430,160,143.19
What is the legal status of farmworkers in the US?
According to the National Agricultural Workers’ Survey of 2000: 52% of respondents identified as undocumented; 22% identified as citizens; 24% as legal permanent residents; and 2% as other (student visa, asylum, refugee, etc.). Almost half of all documented farmworkers in this country are US citizens, and the overwhelming majority of foreign-born farmworkers are legal US residents.20 Please note that these figures do not include H2-A guest workers. It is of further note that in 1986 nearly 1.1 million undocumented workers gained legal status under the Special Agricultural Worker (SAW) program made possible by the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act the same year.21
1 US Department of Agriculture
2 US Department of Labor , "Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey: (NAWS) 1997-1998 A Demographic and Employment Profile of United States Farmworkers,"
3 Student Action with Farmworkers, "United States Farmworker Fact Sheet;" Statistics from NAWS 2000
4 Total number of interviews conducted 4199 (n = 4199) in 85 counties from each of the 12 agricultural regions designated by NAWS throughout the US Nearly all respondents were crop workers including not only harvesters but also field packers and supervisors.
6 USDA, ERS
7 ERIC Digest, December 2002
9 USDA, ERS
10 Economic Research Service/USDA, "Agricultural Outlook," October 1998
11 NAWS 2000
13 Economic Research Service/USDA, "Agricultural Outlook," October 1998
14 USDA: NASS
15 US Department of Labor, " Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey: (NAWS) 1997-1998 A Demographic and Employment Profile of United States Farmworkers,"
16 ERIC Digest, December 2002
17 NAWS 1997
18 USDA, ERS
19 Census of Agriculture, 1992, Total Labor Bill
20 US Department of Labor, National Agricultural Workers' Survey, 2000
21 US Department of Labor, National Agricultural Workers' Survey, 2000
