There are many farm workers like Saul Gomez. He's been working in the fields since 1975.
According to La Cooperativa non-profit corporation, there are up to 800,000 farm workers just in California helping produce nearly two thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts.
But for many, the work is more than physically exhausting.
“Its very intense, you have to be crouched down all day cutting the vegetables," Gomez says.
And he says the financial burden is just as heavy.
“In the end, they don’t pay much and the only option is to cram in a small apartment all together to be able to pay the bills," Gomez added,
“We can’t make ends meet, everything is so expensive, rent, food,” said Carmelita Martinez, who is also a farmworker.
Farmworkers in Santa Barbara County make an average of $16.50 an hour, according to Daniel Segura with CAUSE, an organization that has been helping farmworkers take a stand.
"This is an issue that I think anyone can look at and say, 'You're right, the cost of living on the Central Coast is expensive'," Segura said.
Last month, Segura and a group of farmworkers went straight to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, pushing for a wage ordinance that would guarantee farmworkers $26 an hour.
"This is a fight that isn't new," Segura told KSBY. "Farmworkers have had to stand up for themselves, fight for the rights, fight for better treatment and respect and this is just that continued legacy.”
For Griselda Martinez, the possibility of a wage increase brings hope.
"We dream of buying a home one day so we could live better and give our children a better life,” Martinez said.
The possibility of earning more excites many farm workers like Gonzalez, but she also worries that higher wages could mean fewer hours.
Segura believes the farms can afford the increase.
“Strawberries alone almost made a revenue of $1 billion in their county, so being able to pay farmworkers a livable wage is a possibility that farmers can do.”
But the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California says otherwise.
“To be looking at significant cost increases, especially when many operations have experienced losses year after year after year, to have an additional increase in cost would likely not be sustainable in many cases," said association president Claire Wineman.
She says they’re extremely concerned about the loss of jobs.
“It's a 63% increase, and there are very many small family farms, large family farms that would not be able to continue to operate," Wineman says. “The prices that we see at the stores, farmers only get a tiny fraction of that. It's cents on the dollar.”
KSBY also reached out to a dozen farms in the Santa Maria area but the owners were either unavailable or did not want to speak with us about the issue.
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors will review the proposal after an advisory committee examines the potential wage increase.
