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How do Latino workers in the Coachella Valley compare to Latinos in the rest of California? They earn less. New CLLAS research finds that Coachella Valley Latinos earn a median of $17.63 an hour, compared to $19.87 for Latinos statewide and $33.33 for non-Latino Californians.
Wage disparities are usually explained by what workers bring with them to the labor market, and by education in particular. But that explanation only goes so far in the Coachella Valley. In the Valley, the wage gap widens at higher levels of education, whether Valley Latinos are compared to Latinos elsewhere in California or to non-Latino Californians. The wage gap widens at higher levels of education, especially by gender. At the bachelor’s degree level, Valley Latinas earn just 75 cents for every dollar earned by similarly educated Latinas elsewhere in California. Read the data brief here.
A Valley Built on Latino Labor
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.
