A new report sheds light on the vulnerability of Monterey County’s agricultural workers—accounting for more than 20 percent of all jobs in the region and supporting nearly $8 billion in direct agricultural output. The report examines farmworker well-being through the lens of climate and health, immigration enforcement, agricultural technology and housing, and calls for stronger protections and more inclusive regulations for farmworkers.
Low wages and unsafe working conditions have persisted over the last decade, according to the report, while an increase in temporary and seasonal labor, in tandem with heightened immigration enforcement, has exacerbated challenges. The report, released March 9, was produced by UC Santa Cruz’s Institute for Social Transformation in partnership with the Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño (CBDIO), a nonprofit that supports Indigenous Oaxacan migrant communities.
“Many families of farmworkers struggle to afford housing, child care, transportation, food and so many other necessities,” said Gabriella Alvarez, co-author of the report, at a press conference in Salinas on Thursday, March 12. “Secondly, immigration status and labor systems increase worker vulnerability and destabilize our regional economy.”
Nearly three-quarters of agricultural workers in the United States are not U.S. citizens, and an estimated half are undocumented workers, Alvarez noted, allowing workplace violations to go unreported due to threat of deportation. Compounding this, reports from the Department of Homeland Security point to over 600,000 individuals deported in 2025. While Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in Monterey County has been less common relative to other parts of the state and country, some areas of the state have seen up to 70-percent work absenteeism over concerns over deportation risk.
Data also shows that the use of H-2A visa labor—a temporary agricultural worker program that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers for seasonal labor—has more than tripled over the last decade, increasing fivefold in Monterey County.
The report states that H-2A workers in the county have expressed concerns about poor working conditions and workplace instability, with some employers reportedly threatening to remove workers from the program if they request wage increases or improvements in working conditions.
The median annual salary for agricultural workers in Monterey and San Benito county was approximately $23,000 in 2024, falling short of the estimated $76,024 needed per parent to support a family of four in Monterey County.
Key findings in the report also point to climate change, with farmworkers on the front lines to experience the dangers of extreme heat and floods, many of whom are living in areas more vulnerable to extreme flooding such as Pajaro.
“Farmworkers die from heat exposure at nearly 20 times the rate of other outdoor workers,” Alvarez said. “Climate disasters such as the 2023 Pajaro floods are expected to become more frequent, and will only heighten their risk to families and farm worker safety as a whole.”
The growth of ag tech in the Salinas Valley ushers in mixed perspectives from farmworkers, according to the report. Some fear being displaced by the advancement of technology and automation in the field, while others have cautious optimism that the technology will reduce the most physically demanding and dangerous work that younger generations are less willing to do.
“I think something the report is trying to highlight is, technology is not bad,” says Yesica Guzman Rodriguez, lead community organizer with CBDIO, “but it’s important to make sure that we include the voices of farmworkers to make just they’re not being left out as technology is advancing in this area.”