Yakima County wages among lowest in U.S.

YAKIMA — In at least one respect, Juan Rodriguez is your average Yakima County worker.

The Buena resident is a farm worker who is cutting asparagus this spring, earning from $500 to $600 each week.

The paycheck has to stretch a little farther now that he is supporting a wife and a 5-month-old son.

“We’re used to surviving off this amount of money,” said Rodriguez, 26. “Now that we have the baby, money is a little tighter, especially because we have to buy him so much milk. But to be honest, I can take care of my family with what I earn. Life is normal.”

He’s not alone in earning less than $600 a week.

According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, Yakima County’s average weekly wage is $580, making it among the very lowest in large counties across the United States.

According to a bureau report covering the third quarter of 2008, Yakima County ranks 330th out of 334 counties where more than 75,000 people are employed.

The gross wage figure equates to $14.50 per hour. Residents toiling in minimum-wage jobs earn much less than that.

Yakima County has had wage growth, the agency said, rising from $539 per week in 2006. The increase, however, has allowed workers to barely keep pace with inflation.

Economists and economic development officials blame the small paychecks on the county’s large agricultural base, where wage gains are hard to come by.

Only three counties in south Texas near the Mexican border and one in eastern South Carolina have lower weekly average wages.

The nationwide average, according to the federal report, is $841 per week.

As expected, King County has the highest weekly average wage in Washington state at $1,162, more than double the Yakima County average.

While ranking low in wages, the same report for September 2008 said Yakima County had the highest percentage of job growth in the nation over the same month a year earlier — 3.2 percent.

Dave McFadden, president and chief executive officer of the county’s economic development arm New Vision, said he isn’t surprised by either the job growth or wage figures.

The September 2008 snapshot occurred near the peak of harvest in what was an excellent year for crops and prices in Yakima Valley agriculture.

But the job growth didn’t translate to higher wages.

“We obviously have more work to do,” McFadden said. “The gains are good spot information, but the total picture is still the same. We need to diversify and we need to grow the wage base and move in a different direction.”

The nonprofit agency is working on creating a local hub for regional warehousing, distribution and transportation because of the potential higher wages.

Other goals include nurturing niche agricultural areas, such as wineries and craft beers; supporting businesses such as plastics packaging; and expanding health and medical companies and industrial machinery.

“Agriculture is great, but if we can get job growth in health care and distribution that pay higher wages, we will see progress,” McFadden said.

Still, turning in a new direction is difficult in counties where agriculture is the dominant industry.

California provides a good example. It’s top two agriculture counties — Fresno and Tulare — are close to Yakima County’s average wage figure.

Fresno County, the state’s biggest ag producer, had an annual average weekly wage of $658. Tulare County’s average is $606.

While agriculture is blamed for low wages, it is also credited with helping shield the local economy from the worst of the nation’s current economic woes.

Doug Tweedy, regional labor economist with the state Employment Security Department, said the county’s strong reliance on agriculture — a fourth of all jobs are in agriculture — has insulated it from the national recession.

Many areas have been battered by the credit crunch and the loss of construction and manufacturing jobs.

Tweedy noted that agriculture had good prices in 2008 for commodities and the region also saw the new Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences medical school in Terrace Heights open last August to its first class of students.

“You had a couple of bumps there that a lot of communities didn’t have,” Tweedy said.

But along with that stability from agriculture comes a large number of minimum-wage jobs.

“One of the things with an economy based in agriculture, you don’t have the Boeings and the Microsofts,” he said.

Tony Nunes, an economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics in San Francisco, agreed with Tweedy’s assessment.

“In Yakima County, you have the burgeoning wine industry that has created some growth. But it is not really creating enough in actual wages to offset the difference,” he said.

The bureau’s statistics, issued on a quarterly basis, are derived from summaries of employment and total pay of workers covered by unemployment insurance.

In Yakima County, the rate is based on employment of more than 111,000 people.

Nunes said the survey covers nearly all employed persons. Not covered are those who are self-employed.

Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League, a Yakima-based group that represents farmers on labor issues, said most jobs in agriculture are entry level or close to it, paying wages in the range of $9 to $12 per hour.

“The industry does have higher paying job categories. The bulk of the hours in the industry are worked by people doing manual labor,” he said.

Gempler said if undocumented workers weren’t available, greater competition for what is already an inadequate labor force would see increasing competition and higher wages. But the growth will be tempered because farming would become uneconomical.

“I think the existing work force — which we are told is well over 50 percent of people using false documents — allows the industry to stay alive. I think that is the message,” he said.

Weekly wage

Average wages in Washington state’s larger counties:

King County $1,162

Snohomish County $856

Thurston County $786

Clark County $777

Pierce County $774

Kitsap County $766

Spokane County $700

Whatcom County $679

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics