New Report
Southern California’s Coachella Valley is known for music festivals, Palm Springs resorts, and golf courses. It is also one of the state’s most productive agricultural regions. Yet the workforce powering the Valley’s economy is sharply divided along racial lines.
A Valley Built on Latino Labor finds that Latinos make up 54% of the Coachella Valley’s population and 62% of its workforce, yet earn just 59 cents for every dollar paid to White workers. Drawing on five years of American Community Survey data, the report traces how that divide plays out in wages, poverty, housing, and wealth across the Valley’s hardest-hit communities — places like Coachella, Thermal, and Mecca that rarely make national headlines.
As the desert draws crowds and international attention for the upcoming music festival season, this report looks at the workers who build and sustain the Coachella Valley, and what they get paid for it.
