The food systemis a vast, interconnected set of industries representing the largest sections of the domestic economy in terms of employment. 
Food-related industries comprise the third largest contribution to the nation’s gross output. 
The food system includes all of the processes and infrastructures necessary to provide food for the population, includingproduction, processing, distribution, retail, and service. 
The vast majority of food workers have low-wage jobs. Although the food system is one of the fastest growing industries, it has the lowest median wage, far below the median for all other industries. 
While some of these employees routinely interact with consumers, many workers and their jobsite conditions remain hidden in faraway agricultural fields, behind the closed doors of processing facilities, and in the back of restaurants and retail stores. 
| Workforce Size | 2.5 Million Workers |
| CEO-to-Worker Index |
1 CEO per 1245 Workers |
| Median Hourly Wage | $11 |
| Union Density | 1.4% |
| Workforce Size | 1.8 Million Workers |
| CEO-to-Worker Index |
1 CEO per 524 Workers |
| Median Hourly Wage | $13 |
| Union Density | 12.7% |
| Workforce Size | 3.3 Million Workers |
| CEO-to-Worker Index |
1 CEO per 539 Workers |
| Median Hourly Wage | $14 |
| Union Density | 13.9% |
| Workforce Size | 3.1 Million Workers |
| CEO-to-Worker Index |
1 CEO per 1967 Workers |
| Median Hourly Wage | $10 |
| Union Density | 13.9% |
| Workforce Size | 11 Million Workers |
| CEO-to-Worker Index |
1 CEO per 3945 Workers |
| Median Hourly Wage | $9.3 |
| Union Density | 1.6% |
The modern food system is inseparable from the legacy of slavery and the 20th-century inheritance of racism and oppression.
The latter includes the use of indentured laborers from Asia, impoverished Black sharecroppers in the South, and small farmers driven from their homes during the Dust Bowl.
New Deal legislation in the 1930s introduced a host of important labor regulations and protections, including the right to organize unions.
However, jobs that were dominated by Black workers such as agricultural and domestic work were intentionally left out of the laws.
During World War II, Mexican laborers were brought to U.S. fields to work under the bracero program, described by Department of Labor official Lee Williams as a system of “legalized slavery.”
This program set the stage for the contemporary reliance on undocumented immigrants in farm work.
The relegation of women to lesser economic and social roles in the U.S. is reflected in the organization of labor in the food system.
Historically, women’s work has been devalued due to patriarchal systems that view their labor as less valuable than that of men.
While women perform the majority of food-related work both in the home and in the food system, they are less likely to be decision makers, to hold positions of authority, or to be paid fairly for their work.
Culturally, women experience a complicated relationship with food at the personal level due to social norms.
Women are the unpaid and often undervalued food workers in the home.
While both women and people of color are the lowest paid workers in the food system, gender is more significant than race in terms of its impact on low wages for agricultural, production, retail, and service work.
In the restaurant industry, both white women and women of color are segregated by job function and earn the lowest wages overall.
The barriers to advancement can include sexual discrimination, a lack of training or social networks, and few options for childcare.
The various sectors of the industrial food system are often dominated by a handful of large corporations.
Concentration is considerable in meat processing and in food retail, for example, where there have recently been sweeping consolidations as companies struggle to compete with corporate giants.
These businesses argue that consolidation will increase efficiency, lower prices, and improve customer service.
In reality, consolidation gives a small number of companies enormous control over how food is produced, transported, and sold, while exerting downward pressure on wages and undermining unionization.
A striking example of this is Walmart, the largest grocery store chain and corporation in the world. When Walmart demands that suppliers keep costs low, companies along the food chain must respond in order to remain in business.
This often results in a domino effect of depressed wages, lower unionization rates, and worse working conditions throughout the food system.
Walmart’s employment practices also set the tone for many competing businesses in the retail sector, as its low wages help keep costs low and exert pressure on their competition.
These low wages come at a price for society, however research demonstrates that taxpayers subsidize Walmart through programs such as health insurance, public housing, and food assistance provided to their employees to the tune of $900,000 to $1.7 million dollars for every store per year.
An important factor contributing to the wages and working conditions in the food system is the level of workforce unionization, or union density.
Nearly all sectors of the U.S. economy have experienced a decrease in unionization over the past several decades as employers have resisted workers’ organizing efforts and restructured their operations via increased automation, subcontracting, and global outsourcing.
While 20.5 percent of workers in the U.S. were covered by a union contract in 1985, union density overall is 12.3 percent today, and 7.4 percent in the private sector.
The food system also experienced a decline in unionization over this period and lower union density overall, from 16.5 percent in 1985 to 6.6 percent today.
The higher union density 10 sectors of food processing, distribution, and retail in particular have seen dramatic decreases over this time period.
Nonetheless, union-represented workers today earn 26 percent more on average than non-union workers and are far more likely to have health and pension benefits.
The recovery of previous levels of unionization would significantly improve the average wages and working conditions in the industry.
U.S. labor laws have historically facilitated cheap labor and oppressive conditions within the food system, although the lack of regulations is often equally damaging.
Even when labor protections exist, enforcement can be weak or absent. The government intervenes in food production more directly through major subsidies of agricultural goods, especially corn and soy.
Large, profitable farms receive over 70 percent of subsidy payments, which encourages further consolidation of farms into large-scale agribusiness.
In short, government policies incentivize an industrial food system that is highly consolidated and emboldened to produce cheap, processed foods.
Employment in the food chain is robust and growing.
Despite employment growth, the food chain pays the lowest hourly median wage to frontline workers compared to workers in all other industries
This is well below wages across all industries
Food chain workers rely on public assistance and are more food insecure than other workers.
Most food chain workers are in frontline positions with few opportunities at the top. Eighty-two percent of food chain workers are in frontline positions.
Frontline workers in the food chain are racially and ethnically diverse, but most CEOs are white males.
Significant racial and gender wage gaps exist. For every dollar earned by white men working in the food chain:
White women earn less than half of their white male counterparts, at 47 cents to every dollar. Women of color face both a racial and a gender penalty
for every dollar earned by white men.
Rates of injury and illness at work for food workers have risen since 2010. Non-fatal rates of workplace-caused injury and illness in food production, one of the food chain’s most dangerous sectors, have risen from 2010 to 2014:
Food chain workers are members of unions at a steadily decreasing rate.
Collected here are the words of workers from every link in the food chain, spanning experiences of age, gender, race, and citizenship. The results are troubling
Wages Discrimination & Abuse Unstable & Temporary Work Unpredictable Schedules & Difficult Hours Unsafe & Dangerous Working Conditions Personal Health & Sickness Organizing20 workers representing each of the five sectors of the food system from 15 FCWA member organizations
Every worker described significant challenges for frontline food workers.
They detailed the realities of low wage work, described daily discrimination and abuse, violations of health and safety laws, and the problems that come with temporary employment practices.
In addition, they shared stories about the myriad ways in which these conditions prevent them from living a good life—one in which they have a job where they are valued and treated with dignity, they are paid enough to support their family, and they are given enough time off to relax and spend quality time with loved ones.
Food workers make the lowest wages in the economy. However, wages and the experiences around pay vary by sector and employer.
Along with low pay, workers we spoke with chronicled challenges of understanding the complications of piece rate pay, only receiving small raises even after long tenures with companies, and the difficulty in addressing instances of wage theft.
Production workers earn a median hourly wage of $11. Undocumented production workers make even less. Enrique currently earns $9.60 per hour but has worked other jobs where he was paid below the minimum. Catalina worked harvesting oranges at a farm in Florida for over 10 years, making $8.35 per hour.
She shared her frustrations over the low pay with us,
You work so many hours in the sun, and it’s so hot. Oh my god, I wish more people could spend a day in the sun and work like we work so that they feel whether or not $8 per hour is what we deserve to do this work. And to do so much work.
Across all five sectors, we heard tales of wage theft, the failure of employers to pay workers what they earned.
Two of the service workers we spoke to receive the tipped minimum wage and shared stories of low or stolen tips.
Others detailed not being paid for hours worked. We heard that sometimes there are different pay rates for different departments in retail stores so workers need to scrutinize their checks to ensure they are paid correctly.
Stories like these were common in our interviews with distribution and processing workers as well. For farmworkers, who have fewer legal protections and for whom fear about legal status is often used by employers to intimidate them, wage theft is even more common.
Enrique, who works in a dairy farm and has friends in farms across the northeast, told us about common wage theft issues.
There are ranches where when you start, they hold your pay and say they are going to pay you when you are done with the job, but many times they don’t pay you at the end of the job.
Read more of these workers' stories in the full report. Download it here
The problems of low wages and wage theft only partially capture the issues that many food workers face.
All of the workers we interviewed cited routine incidents of unfair treatment, including discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, gender, and immigration status.
Moreover, many of those interviewed had stories of managers treating them with disregard and disrespect.
The immigrant workers we spoke with, in particular, talked about how discrimination often included threats of deportation to keep them from speaking out about poor conditions and illegal activity, such as not following minimum wage laws or safety regulations.
Jiang, a sushi chef in a restaurant in Massachusetts, details the discriminatory practices at his workplace, emphasizing that depending on what race or ethnicity the owner is, they will scapegoat or discriminate against workers of a different race. This is especially true if the workers are undocumented or vulnerable.
Most of the discrimination he sees is targeted at Latino workers,
Latino workers don’t make the same money even though they do the same job.
Tiofilo and Jorge, two dishwashers in a New York City restaurant confirmed this sentiment, emphasizing that much of the discrimination they face is based on their immigration status.
They may hire us, but because we’re immigrants, we’re going to suffer the worst of anyone in the restaurant.
This kind of abuse takes a toll. Tiofilo said he can stand the physical difficulties of the job, but the "psychological impact, you know; always being treated that way" is difficult to withstand day in and day out.
Read more of these workers' stories in the full report. Download it here
The entire food industry, like all sectors of the economy, is increasingly structured so that companies have "hyper-flexibility" across all areas of their work.
Rather than hire workers as permanent employees, companies instead hire workers through contractors, temp agencies, and staffing agencies
These strategies allow companies to avoid paying higher wages and to evade legal responsibility for providing health insurance and other work benefits to the employees.
For distribution workers in particular, the hiring of labor through third party logistics providers results in a competitive landscape in which agencies exist in a fluid market that puts strong downward pressures on wages.
While this flexibility might help companies save money, the effects on workers include lower pay, unpredictable schedules and hours, fewer benefits, little job security, and very few opportunities for advancement.
Nationally, temporary workers earn 22 percent less than all private-sector workers.
Turning to temporary workers is a growing trend in the food system, in farms and warehouses, food processing plants, distribution companies, and even fast food restaurants and food service establishments.
This dependence on cheap, contingent workers effectively creates a low-wage marginalized workforce that can find no possibility of career advancement. Across interviews, we heard stories about how these trends hurt workers.
These practices are increasingly common for food processing facilities, which are following the model of the use of farm labor contractors in agriculture.
An example of this can be found at two Taylor Farms plants in Tracy, California. About 900 workers, mostly Latino, work in the two facilities, with about half of the workers employed through two temporary staffing agencies, Slingshot and Abel Mendoza.
As Doug Bloch, political director of the Teamsters Joint Council No. 7 puts it, some of these "temporary" employees have been working at Taylor Farms for up to 14 years, most are paid the minimum wage, and on average the workers in Tracy earn $3 per hour less than workers in the same job classifications at a unionized plant in Salinas, California owned by the same company.
Read more of these workers' stories in the full report. Download it here
Unpredictable scheduling with too few hours or long shifts with no flexibility to cut hours left the workers we interviewed feeling that they lack agency and control over their lives.
About half of the workers we interviewed told us about their schedules being kept just below full-time in order for companies to avoid offering them benefits.
The other half talked about needing to work so many hours that they had no time for anything else.
Lydia shared that in response to requests from workers for more hours, management,
"always has an excuse. They say that the business is slow, and they can’t. But they just don’t want to do it."
In addition to not getting enough hours, workers with erratic schedules have trouble keeping a second job because they can’t predict when they will be available.
This is a problem because they are often not making quite enough to get by and become trapped in a cycle of poverty.
A few of the workers we interviewed mentioned scheduling changes made in retaliation after workers did something management didn’t like or even after they called in sick.
Reyna, who works at Albertson’s, told us how the schedule at her workplace is based on favoritism.
Many workers we interviewed shared that it is routine for them to work long hours and to not receive the breaks and recovery time that they are entitled to. Processing plant workers are required to work long shifts, often overnight, with some split shifts, and few breaks.
Fabiana, who works in a poultry processing plant, has one 20-minute break over her nine-hour shift. Sometimes she has to spend 10 of those minutes waiting in line for the bathroom. "We get a break of 20 minutes at mid-day and eat quickly. Then we return to the line and do the same work for the rest of the day."
Read more of these workers' stories in the full report. Download it here
Given national concerns around food safety, we might expect that the workers who handle our food supply would do so in healthy and safe working conditions.
But as our data analysis on OSHA violations in previous sections show, the reality is that food workers have rates of injury much higher than national averages.
All of the workers we interviewed had either been hurt on the job themselves or had a close co-worker who had been hurt.
Very often, these injuries are not treated seriously by management. For instance, one of the workers from a processing plant recalls a time when his sister told management that she hurt her foot on one of the machines.
She called them over, and they said,
'You’re fine. It’s nothing.’ And she told them, ‘No, my foot hurts, and I want to call someone.’ They wanted her to see the company doctor, the same one who treats everyone and who tells everyone, ‘Oh no, you’re fine. Take this pill, and that’ll get rid of the pain, and tomorrow you can return to work.’
All of the workers in production and processing we spoke with referenced being told to see a "company doctor" when they’ve been sick or injured. These doctors are familiar with the working conditions at the farm or plant and are paid by the company. They usually clear workers to go back to work quickly and never tell them about the long-term risks involved in their work.
Read more of these workers' stories in the full report. Download it here
While many of the workers we interviewed told us about getting sick more often because of their jobs, they don’t have any support from the same jobs to ensure that they can take time off to take care of themselves and stay healthy. While the Teamsters helped the workers in Jose’s plant get paid sick days, many processing plant workers do not have the same.
In addition to negligence around basic health and safety, few workers are given paid time off for sick days and end up working sick.
Or, even when they do take time off, they are punished for absences with larger workloads, so many report not adequately taking care of their health needs in order to avoid additional stress at work.
Fabiana told us about the poultry plant’s approach to sick days.
Sometimes one has to go to work sick because they do not give you sick days. If you call in sick, you get a half point, and if you do not call, you get three points. At 13 points, you get fired. At times, I had to go to work with a fever.Some workers have paid sick days after organizing efforts or recent legislation; others, who are employed informally, do not.
Because pay is tied to the hours worked, many workers opt to work while sick, even if it is additionally unsafe while handling food.
Tagela told us,
Yeah, I work when I’m sick. It’s go in or not get paid. And especially when you have other mouths to feed, you have to go in. You don’t have no other choice but to go in and get paid for that day. If not, then your check is short.
In addition, many workers don’t have health insurance and can’t get the quality care they need when they are sick.
Read more of these workers' stories in the full report. Download it here
The interviews show that across the board food workers face a variety of serious challenges.
However, all the interviewees shared another quality in common—they are all members of organizations that are fighting for better conditions, wages, and treatment at their jobs.
Some of the workers are members of formal labor unions, such as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters or the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
Others are members of worker centers such as the Laundry Workers Center United and the Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights.
Regardless of their organizational affiliation, when workers organize together, real change can happen.
For example, Steven organizes with the Warehouse Worker Resource Center (WWRC) on its long-term campaign to fight for basic rights for the workers at Cal Cartage warehouse company.
He listed the many wins he’s seen while at the warehouse, attributing them to the work of WWRC: more health and safety measures followed; compliance with the requirement that workers are paid for their time at the warehouse if they are called in, even when there is no work; tougher oversight on paychecks to address wage theft issues.
In addition, WWRC and Steven are fighting for compliance with the City of Los Angeles’ living wage ordinance, demanding that Cal Cartage hire more of the workers directly, and fighting back when workers are unjustly terminated.
Steven told us that he is organizing with WWRC because he saw what good and committed work they were doing and wanted to do his part. "They’ve been working on these issues for over two years. Constantly. Not part-time, not like every few weeks. No, every day. Every day it’s been a constant battle... and we’re not done fighting."
Read more of these workers' stories in the full report. Download it here
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