Ciggyfree Blog

Ideally, tobacco should be outlawed. But as long as people continue to use the deadly stuff, those who harvest it for the great profit of tobacco companies deserve far better than the miserable pay and working conditions imposed on them.

“Miserable” is not an exaggeration. Consider North Carolina, the country’s leading tobacco producer. The state’s $500 million-a-year crop is harvested by more than 25,000 workers, most of them Mexican immigrants. Some are documented “guest workers,” some undocumented. Some are as young as 12, as state law allows.

The harvesters make at most about $7 an hour or about $7,100 a year for dangerous, backbreaking work. Most work for growers who do not provide health-care benefits and are exempt from the law that requires workers’ compensation payments for employees who are hurt on the job.