Image borrowed from globalenvision.org |
Many of these workers don’t have permanent jobs and have to wait for someone to drive by and offer work on a daily basis. They then proceed to gather crops all day for pennies on the dollar. Because temporary workers are usually paid in cash, it’s hard to come up with an estimate of their wages, but it can be assumed that they are well below the legal minimum wage, considering that most of these workers are illegal immigrants.
These jobs can last between on day or for an entire season. There is no consistency in the lives of temporary workers. They also need to pay more for housing than a salary worker because they actually need to find some type of housing in a competitive market in addition to finding some source of transportation to and from work.
Temporary workers are most easily replaceable of agricultural workers so injury or illness is a major set back for this group especially.
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