In Sacramento County, one of the strangest places to encounter California’s farm-labor debate is a patch of grass being eaten by goats. The animals are used for prescribed grazing, and the people moving them across the landscape have become part of a wider argument over how agricultural work should be paid.
That argument now sits on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk in the form of AB 2646, a bill aimed at a category of agricultural workers whose pay rules have become increasingly difficult to separate from the rest of the farm economy. The measure has cleared the Assembly and moved through the Senate, according to the Western Growers Association’s account of the legislation.
A Higher Floor for Temporary Labor
AB 2646 proposes a $19.75 hourly wage floor for temporary farmworkers beginning January 1, 2027. The bill also provides for annual increases tied to the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment, putting future labor costs on a rising track rather than leaving the change as a one-time adjustment.
The proposal is aimed at “approved agricultural employees” and corresponding employees, language that matters in an industry where a payroll can include direct hires, labor contractors, seasonal crews, and workers brought through federal guest-worker programs. The Capital Press report on the bill describes the measure as applying to certain agricultural workers and notes that farm and business groups expect pressure on jobs and automation.
Farm groups’ objection is less about one line on a pay stub than about what happens when that line runs through every harvest, thinning pass, pruning crew, and packing shift. They say small, family-owned operations already working with thin margins would have fewer places to absorb the increase: labor could be reduced, machinery substituted where possible, or production moved out of state.
The Payroll Edge of the Farm Map
The bill arrives amid other wage disputes that are already making agricultural employers recalculate labor plans. A separate fight over federal H-2A wage rates has reached federal court in Fresno, where the United Farm Workers is challenging a Department of Labor rule; H-2A positions increased from 317,619 in 2021 to 398,258 in 2025, according to the Fresno Bee’s report.
Goat grazing shows how quickly a wage rule can travel beyond the obvious rows. After a temporary state exemption expired June 30, goat herders became subject to standard overtime requirements while sheep herders retained access to a different monthly-wage structure. Sacramento County has warned that the change threatens prescribed grazing contracts, according to the Sacramento Bee.
For specialty-crop growers, the more immediate question is how AB 2646 would interact with existing overtime, housing, transportation, contractor, and H-2A costs. A wage floor does not arrive alone; it moves through bids from labor contractors and into the cost of getting a crop picked before quality slips.
Newsom has until September 30 to sign or veto AB 2646. That decision will determine whether farm employers must build the new wage structure into 2027 labor budgets and whether food-production costs rise alongside it.