Farmworker Facts

Farm work is one of the most dangerous occupations and worst paying jobs in the country.  Farmworkers endure impoverished living conditions, intensive physical labor, chronic pesticide exposure, racial discrimination and exploitation, deplorable wages with little or no benefits, and long working days in hazardous working conditions.  They generally live in labor camps or substandard housing, shanties in racially segregated areas, or in dilapidated trailers on back dirt roads, invisible to the hundreds of thousands of tourists, retirees, and long-time residents who find the “good life” in Florida.  Despite these hardships, farmworker families somehow retain a spirit of community, faith, and hope – surviving on pride and determination.

• Farmworkers suffer the highest rate of chemical-related illness of any occupational group (source: Environmental Protection Agency).
• Agriculture is consistently ranked among the five most hazardous occupations by the U.S. Department of Labor.
• In a single day’s labor during peak season, a typical farmworker handpicks, while leaning from a ladder, three and a half tons of oranges, or stoops to pick about 3,000 pounds of tomatoes (source: “Farmworkers in Southwest Florida: Final Report”, F. Roka, D. Cook).
• In 2000, the median income for migrant and seasonal workers was $6,250, compared to $42,000 for U.S. workers overall (source: National Agricultural Workers Survey)
• According to the 1997-98 findings of the National Agricultural Workers Survey, nearly three-quarters of U.S. farmworkers earn less than $10,000 per year and three out of five farmworker families have incomes below the poverty level

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