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Wages rise on California farms, Americans still don’t want the job

latimes.com

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Re: Wages rise on California farms, Americans still don’t want the job

#21

Post by dragonwriter »

datatan wrote: post #12

> Wages rise on California farms. Americans still don’t want the job No. Californians don't want the jobs. Americans live in more than just CA, I know a lot of people in CA find this hard to believe but there is a whole world outside of Sillycon Valley.

> No. Californians don't want the jobs. Americans live in more than just CA

Yes, but if they wanted the jobs, they'd come to CA for them.

> I know a lot of people in CA find this hard to believe but there is a whole world outside of Sillycon Valley.

Most people in California—who are, after all, themsleves outside of Silicon Valley, which is a small piece of the state—are well aware of that.

Re: Wages rise on California farms, Americans still don’t want the job

#22

Post by [deleted] »

kerbalspacepro wrote: post #20
datatan wrote: post #12

> Wages rise on California farms. Americans still don’t want the job No. Californians don't want the jobs. Americans live in more than just CA, I know a lot of people in CA find this hard to believe but there is a whole world outside of Sillycon Valley.

I think you bring up a good point. The people who need jobs and the people that need to fill jobs live in different places. American mobility is at an all time low for our technological era. How do we get the unemployed Midwesterners into Napa Valley?

[deleted]

Re: Wages rise on California farms, Americans still don’t want the job

#24

Post by coddingtonbear »

mbroncano wrote: post #9
stale2002 wrote: post #3

Well then obviously wages haven't risen enough. For an extreme example, pay me 200$ an hour and I'll quit my web dev job and do it myself.

Although it's obviously not going to happen, even if it did you couldn't afford buying that same product as a direct result of the increase in cost.

Is that really relevant, though? If the cost of having cheap food is that we create an underclass that are willing to put up with low wages out of economic desperation, is that really an acceptable moral compromise?

Re: Wages rise on California farms, Americans still don’t want the job

#25

Post by crooked-v »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #11

There has to be more to the story here because the unemployment rate in Stockton is 9.5%. So what's the disconnect between people not working, and employers who are apparently trying to pay more and aren't getting workers?

> Or perhaps farms are just not a place where native-born Americans want to work. The job is seasonal, so laborers have to alternate between long stretches without any income and then months of 60-hour weeks. They work in extreme heat and cold, and spend all day bending over to reach vegetables or climbing up and down ladders to pluck fruit in trees.

Agricultural jobs like these are strictly seasonal, require transportation to the job site, are physically exhausting, have very long days, and have no prospects for advancement.

Now compare that to refusing the offer and instead looking for a low-ranking job in construction, which requires transportation to the job site, is physically exhausting, and has very long days, but has work available year-round and has very real prospects for on-the-job training and career advancement.

Re: Wages rise on California farms, Americans still don’t want the job

#26

Post by ysavir »

> Before the day was through, Solorio would make the same pitch to dozens of men and women, approaching a taco truck, a restaurant and a homeless encampment.

Has he tried Craigslist? Or has his entire hiring strategy involved approaching random people on the street?

Re: Wages rise on California farms, Americans still don’t want the job

#27

Post by maym86 »

datatan wrote: post #12

> Wages rise on California farms. Americans still don’t want the job No. Californians don't want the jobs. Americans live in more than just CA, I know a lot of people in CA find this hard to believe but there is a whole world outside of Sillycon Valley.

Californians are Americans. Central Valley is very different to Silicon Valley. You're the person who connected it to Silicon Valley. There's a whole lot of California outside of and unrelated to Silicon Valley.

Re: Wages rise on California farms, Americans still don’t want the job

#28

Post by greedo »

When I was younger, I worked at a McDonalds in SoCal. Almost all the employees were white teenagers. The managers were white as well. We didn't make much, just a bit above minimum wage, but we were all mostly high-school students or college students working in the summer to pay tuition.

This went on until around 1984 or so, when it became much harder to hire this demographic. It wasn't as cool to work at fast food, and the area was becoming more affluent.

Fast forward five years, and 99% of the staff was now Hispanic, including several illegal immigrants. The restaurant had to do what it could to make money and stay in biz.

I don't know how high wages would have to be to attract the previous demographic to that type of work. The area is far more affluent than when I was growing up, and house prices start at over $700K and go higher easily.

I do think something is missing though when kids don't learn what it's like to hold a retail type job dealing with the public. You learn hard work, humility, and often an appreciation for higher education.

Re: Wages rise on California farms, Americans still don’t want the job

#30

Post by late2part »

greedo wrote: post #28

When I was younger, I worked at a McDonalds in SoCal. Almost all the employees were white teenagers. The managers were white as well. We didn't make much, just a bit above minimum wage, but we were all mostly high-school students or college students working in the summer to pay tuition. This went on until around 1984 or so, when it became much harder to hire this demographic. It wasn't as cool to work at fast food, a…

My impression is that a similar issue occurred in the military a few years later.
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