California’s Hired Farm Workers in 1965

 Click here to download this blog post as a PDF file

August 27, 2020

The year 1965 was a “time of transition” in farm labor as farmers who had relied on Mexican Braceros hired more US workers. The US admitted 4.5 million Braceros between 1942 and 1964. Since many returned year-after year, perhaps two million Mexicans were employed on US farms over 22 years. Bracero admissions were less than half of their peak 1956 levels in 1964.

Over 4.6 million Braceros were admitted between 1942 and 1964, including almost 10% in 1956

Hawley (1966, 175) quotes Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz, who said “getting rid of the Bracero program [was] one of the most important social and economic developments” of the 1960s. After the Bracero program ended in 1964, Wirtz wanted farmers to raise wages and improve working conditions to attract US workers, while farmers wanted to hire Mexican workers under the then very small H-2 guest worker program. Wirtz made hiring H-2 workers more difficult by requiring farmers to offer the US workers they must to try to recruit before receiving certification to employ H-2 workers the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, which in 1965 ranged from $1.15 an hour in Arkansas to $1.40 in California.

Under the Bracero program, Braceros but not US farm workers were guaranteed minimum wages. A minimum wage of $1 an hour under the Fair Labor Standards Act was implemented for US farm workers employed on farms that used more than 500 man-days of hired labor in any quarter of the preceding year beginning January 1, 1967, and this farm worker minimum wage rose to $1.30 an hour February 1, 1968. DOL estimated that 400,000 of the three million US farm workers would be covered by the federal minimum wage.

There were anecdotal reports of more housewives and students entering the California farm workforce as the Bracero program shrank in the early 1960s. Fuller reported that 571,000 workers were employed in California agriculture in 1964, when average annual employment was 190,000, a ratio of three workers per full-time equivalent job. However, only 102,000 of the 571,000 workers had farm earnings in all four quarters of 1964, and 90 percent of four-quarter workers were men. Fuller’s Table 5 shows that the male workers with farm work in all four quarters of 1964 earned a median $3,181 ($26,453 in 2020).

California had 92,500 male farm workers in 1964 who had farm earnings in all 4 quarters and earned a median $3,200

California sponsored a study of all workers employed for wages on California farms in 1965. Some 742,000 workers had California farm earnings in 1965, up from 571,000 in 1964. Analysts sought to interview 3,500 workers who earned at least $100 from farm work in 1965, and found 90 percent of the workers who earned over $5,000 and half of those who earned less than $1,000. The 2,000 workers who answered survey questions were paid $3 ($26 in 2020).

The 742,000 workers in 1965 were divided into three groups. A third or 256,000 earned less than $100 ($815 in 2020 dollars). Analysts focused on the 486,700 workers who had more than $100 in farm earnings, and Table A shows that they earned a median $763 ($6,244 in 2020). These more-than-$100 primary farm workers included 285,000 or 60 percent who earned $100 to $1,000 from farm work and were out of the labor force over half of the year. The 195,000 workers who had more than $1,000 in farm earnings were considered to be professional farm workers.

60% of primary farm workers in 1965 earned $100 to $1,000 from farm work ($815 to $8,150 in 2020)

The San Joaquin Valley included 47 percent of more-than-$100 primary farm workers, and San Joaquin Valley workers had the second-highest median farm earnings of $830 in 1965. The 18 percent of primary farm workers in southern California earned the most, a median $1,000 ($8,184 in 2020), and the 20 percent in the Central Coast earned a median $725.

Table E shows that over 80 percent of primary workers had farm earnings in only one area of California, 14 percent in two, and four percent in three areas.

80% of primary farm workers in 1965 worked in only one area of the state

Table F shows that fruits and nuts employed the most workers in 1965, 42 percent, and fruit and nut workers had the lowest median farm earnings of $710 ($5,760 in 2020). Vegetables employed 19 percent of workers, and vegetable workers had median farm earnings of $815. Livestock employed nine percent of workers who had median farm earnings of $1,300. The 23 percent share of workers in field crops reflected workers hired to thin large acreages of cotton (about 750,000 acres) and sugar beets (about 350,000 acres).

Fruits and nuts employed 43% of workers in 1965, followed by 23% in field crops and 19% in vegetables

Table I shows that 74 percent of workers in 1965 worked only by hand, followed by 13 percent who did hand and machine work. Median earnings for the nine percent of workers who did only machine work were almost three times higher at $2,895 ($23,693 in 2020) than the $1,065 ($8,716 in 2020) median earnings of those who did only hand work.

74% of workers in 1965 worked only by hand, and earned a median $1,065 in 1965

Table J shows that 22 percent of farm workers found their last three farm jobs via friends and relatives, and another 22 percent contacted growers directly, followed by a seventh who found jobs via contractors or crew leaders.

Friends and relatives and direct hiring by growers were the most common ways of finding farm jobs

Table K shows that 78 percent of primary farm workers were men and 22 percent were women. Men had a median $920 in farm earnings in 1965, twice the $465 of women.

Men were 78 percent of workers in 1965 and earned twice as much as women

Table L shows that 23 percent of primary farm workers were under 20, while almost half were 20 to 44. Median earnings were highest for those 25 to 34 at $2,365 ($19,250 in 2020) and lowest for the workers under 20 at $500.

Workers 25 to 34 earned almost 5 times more than workers under 20

Table M shows that 46 percent of primary farm workers were Mexican (including Mexican Americans) and 44 percent were Anglos, followed by Blacks and Filipinos, who were each three percent of primary farm workers. Filipinos had the highest median earnings of $2,375, followed by Mexicans, $1,470 and Anglos, $1,295. Anglos were grouped at the extremes of the earnings distribution, with a quarter earning less than $500 (many low earning Anglos were students) and 12 percent earning more than $5,000.

Mexicans and Anglos were 90 percent of 1965 primary farm workers

Table N shows that 15 percent of primary farm workers were high school graduates and another 17 percent completed 9 to 11 years of education. Over 85 percent of farm workers in 1965 did not complete high school, including 17 percent who were still in school.

15% of primary farm workers were high school graduates in 1965

The report concluded that there was “chronic unemployment, even among workers firmly attached to the labor force, [that] keeps median annual earnings low and may reduce the attraction of farm work.” (p32). Almost half of the workers were in the labor force all of 1965, but only a seventh had 50 or more weeks of work in 1965. The report attributed chronic unemployment to the “primitive organization of the farm labor market” and the lack of education of farm workers.

The study also examined California’s 145,100 migrant farm workers in 1965; they were 30 percent of $100 or more farm workers. Mexicans were 55 percent of migrants, higher than their 46 percent share of the state’s farm workers. Table A shows that migrants had median earnings of $1,624, more than twice the median $763 of all farm workers.

Migrants were defined as workers who were employed in more than farm labor area or in a farm labor area that was different from their area of residence. In defining farm labor areas, “account was taken of the size of the county, the distances involved, and the existence of natural barriers such as mountains,” so that a worker who lived in eastern Riverside county could be a migrant by working in western Riverside county.

Migrant farm workers were 30% of 1965 farm workers, and earned more than twice as much

Table C shows that Filipino migrants had the highest median earnings among race and ethnic groups, and Mexicans had higher median earnings than Anglos.

Filipino migrants had the highest median earnings of $2,328 in 1965

The report included special sections on Mexicans and students in the 1965 farm workforce, and a section on social insurance and welfare as income supplements for farm workers and their families. Table A shows that family incomes for workers with farm earnings of $100 or more in 1965 were $3,444 ($28,186 in 2020).

Family incomes of farm workers in 1965 were a median $3,444 ($28,186 in 2020)

Farm employers provided housing for 20 percent of the year-round farm workers and temporary housing for half of the migrant workers they employed.

Agricultural economist Varden Fuller reviewed California's farm labor history and concluded that political decisions shaped the size, characteristics, and wages of hired farm workers. Lack of education and few nonfarm job opportunities encouraged US farm workers to adjust to seasonality, accepting seasonal farm jobs in order to have some earnings rather than be jobless and have no income. Poverty and low wages abroad made immigrants and guest workers eager to work in California agriculture.

Fuller concluded that there were several effects of the political decisions that created an excess supply of farm workers. First, with farm wages half of nonfarm levels, farm workers and their children learned that climbing the economic ladder meant getting out of agriculture, leading to treadmill-style labor market that relied on a continuous influx of new farm workers who had few other US job options to replace exiting workers and fill new jobs being created.

Second, low farm wages were capitalized into higher land prices, benefitting large landowners who could produce labor-intensive commodities in California, ship them long distances, and be competitive with local produce. Third, armies of seasonal farm workers discouraged family farmers who relied on their own labor from producing fruits and vegetables, since the value of the time that farm families spent doing work that was done on other farms by hired workers was the same as the low wages paid to these workers.

Assembly Committee on Agriculture. 1969. The California farm labor force: a profile in 1965.

Fuller, Varden. 1967. A New Era for Farm Labor? Industrial Relations.

Hawley, Ellis. 1966. The Politics of the Mexican Labor Issue, 1950-1965. Agricultural History. Vol 40. No 3.

Secretary of Labor. 1965. Year of Transition: Seasonal Farm Labor 1965.

Subscribe via Email

Click here to subscribe to Rural Migration News via email.