California wage change will put wildfire-fighting – Business News
Owners of brush-eating goats enlisted to help forestall California wildfires say a new statewide wage law will put them out of business.
At least 20% of the state’s 500,000 sheep and 125,000 goats are used for focused grazing, with the animals eat grass and different vegetation to cut back wildfire risk, based on a March report from the California Department of Industrial Relations.
Green Goat Landscapers in Gilroy, which makes use of about 1,000 goats to clear vegetation. Facebook/Green Goats
But the associated fee of using herders for goats grew to become considerably more costly this month — up to $240,000 a yr — as a result of a minimal wage exception that expired July 1.
“We will effectively sell these goats to slaughter, and we will go out of business and probably file bankruptcy on this business and be done with it in the state of California,” Western Grazers proprietor Tim Arrowsmith instructed KRCR.
Goat herders are sometimes on-duty 24 hours a day since they’re required to dwell on-site close to their herds and be on-call in case of any emergency akin to sickness or predators.
Herders have been exempt from California’s additional time legal guidelines, however in 2016 California lawmakers enacted a measure that led the Department of Industrial Relations to set an different minimal month-to-month wage for such workers. As of 2025, that was $2,934 a month in common wages and $1,887 in additional time wages, or $4,820 a month.
However, the statute solely utilized to sheep herders, that means goat herders must be paid the $20,000 per 30 days minimal wage. In the 2023 finances, lawmakers responded by letting goat herders be paid the choice wage till July of this yr.
Goats are used to eat grass and different vegetation to cut back wildfire risk. AP
Now that it’s expired, ranchers are going through what they see as an existential disaster until lawmakers act again quickly.
“We really provide a needed service, and it benefits all of California,” Green Goat Landscapers co-owner Brian Allen instructed ABC7. “Goats go where people and machines can’t go, and that really reduces that risk of wildfire.”
Green Goat Landscapers co-owner Brian Allen. Linkedin
Higher wages from the 2016 law have already pressured ranchers to regulate by assigning more animals to every herder, based on a examine in California Agriculture,
An attempt final yr within the state legislature to resolve the wage concern by completely exempting goat herders from the agricultural additional time law failed amid opposition from highly effective labor teams.
“Herders and all agricultural workers are essential workers, and the least we can do is uphold their right to fair pay; pay that all essential workers deserve,” the California Labor Federation mentioned.
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It stays unclear whether or not the legislature will act as employee advocates push for more herder protections.
The California Post reached out to state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, who’s behind the everlasting exemption laws, to see if she would attempt again. Another lawmaker instructed KRCR her employees was trying into the problem.
Green Goat Landscapers in Gilroy. Facebook/Green Goats
The March report urged a potential answer of a discount in month-to-month wages together with new guidelines to boost enforcement of employee protections. It additionally mentioned the industry may flip to drones to monitor herds remotely.
Allen mentioned his business faces uncertainty within the meantime.
“We haven’t got there yet. I don’t want to get there. We’re hoping that, like I said, that this issue will be taken up,” he mentioned.
