If you look at places in California with the fattest pay raises, you’ll see one reason why groceries are so pricey.
The most significant jumps in weekly pay since 2019 were concentrated in the state’s agricultural hubs, according to a trusty spreadsheet review of wage stats from the Economic Development Department. These numbers track average weekly earnings for private-sector workers in 29 California job markets.
When comparing the 12-month average ending in November 2024 to pre-pandemic 2019, El Centro’s typical paycheck grew 57% to $959 weekly. San Luis Obispo’s paychecks were 51% bigger, at $1,068. Visalia’s pay rose 40% to $1,022, and Fresno’s was up 33% to $1,064.
Labor shortages in the pandemic era forced farm bosses to pay up in order to remain adequately staffed. And don’t forget to add in hikes to the state’s minimum wage.
Those expenses were passed along the food chain – all the way to your local grocery store. Statewide grocery prices, as measured by four California metro’s Consumer Price Indexes, jumped 28% in the past five years.
So, consider new U.S. immigration policies, which will likely amplify the strained staffing headaches for California’s farmers. Large-scale deportations could further inflate farmhand wages and in turn raise the prices of agricultural products.
By the way, farm town pay hikes were not universal. In Madera, weekly earnings fell 4% from 2019 to $924 – the lone drop statewide.
Paycheck parts
Expanding workweeks helped drive farm area wages higher.
El Centro workers saw a 12% increase in how long they worked since 2019, to 37 hours weekly. San Luis Obispo saw a 3% increase to 31.5 hours. Merced saw a 3% increase to 32 hours.
Two Bay Area suburbs also experienced ballooning workweeks. Napa’s average workweek grew 12% to 37 hours, and San Rafael’s was up 6% to 33 hours.
Conversely, Hanford suffered the state’s most significant dip in its average workweek, down 10% in five years to 31 hours.
In addition, hours shrank in some travel spots due to the spotty tourism business. Ventura County saw a 9% dip to 31 hours weekly, while Santa Maria-Santa Barbara saw an 8% drop to 31 hours.
Big numbers
California’s big-dollar paychecks remained in the tech-heavy Bay Area.
San Jose was No. 1 at an average $1,877 weekly in the past year – after a 15% bump in five years. Then came San Francisco ($1,774 – up 13%), Oakland ($1,363 – up 11%), San Rafael ($1,355 – up 32%), and Napa ($1,335 – up 27%).
Meanwhile, farm country also features the smallest checks, starting with Hanford’s $836 a week – up 15% in five years. Then came Merced ($857 – up 30%), Redding ($861 – up 8%), and Madera and El Centro.
Middling south
Workers in Southern California’s giant job markets received relatively middling pay hikes over the past five years. That reflects the region’s challenges rebounding from pandemic-era obstacles.
The Inland Empire’s 27% average weekly raise to $1,085 was the ninth-largest bump among the 29 markets tracked statewide. This area’s warehouses boomed as the coronavirus pushed many shoppers to online retailing.
San Diego County, up 26% to $1,300, was No. 10. Los Angeles County’s 19% raise to $1,311 ranked No. 14. Orange County’s 14% raise to $1,277 was No. 22.
Bottom line
The average paycheck across California surged 19% in five years to $1,327 weekly as of November 2024.
Those pay raises were likely more generous in places where Californian workers are poorly paid.
Take the 29 markets in this report, ranked by dollars paid per week. You find the smallest paychecks averaged 25% growth during the past five years while the largest earners got just 19%.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com