Posts tagged goats
Commentary: California’s War on Goats Could Worsen the Wildfire Crisis
July 30, 2026 // State lawmakers intervened by passing legislation to allow goat herders to be paid the same alternative minimum as sheep herders until July 1, 2026. Now that the exemption has expired, goat herders must be paid according to traditional overtime rules. Given the 24/7 availability required for herding, this means that Golden State goat herders are now set to be paid $20,000 per month, which works out to $240,000 annually. (For comparison, California Gov. Gavin Newsom's salary currently sits at $245,000). An effort to extend the goat herding exemption beyond 2026 stalled in the state legislature due to opposition from labor unions. Goat-herding businesses have been left scrambling. Western Grazers, a company that deploys roughly 5,000 goats across Northern California, says the new rules push the annual cost of employing each herder above $250,000 once room and board, food, and other expenses are included.
Opinion Editorial Board: Ohio can hire goats if it wants to
July 1, 2026 // Humans domesticated goats about 10,000 years ago, but Harmon is against them, too. The common denominator is that neither goats nor computers pay union dues. If the city believes it can get a job done for $2,900 worth of goats rather than more expensive options that the union would accept, it should be able to hire the animals without a second thought. Not all subcontracting decisions are smart, of course, but they shouldn’t be disqualified just because union bosses aren’t getting a cut.