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  • From: Andy Fellenz <fellenz AT fltg.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Wages
  • Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:22:51 -0400

You need to start fishing in a different part of the wage pool. If you pay junk, that's what you'll get. In a previous career I was involved in hiring and managing hourly employees for factory work and always found that by going a few dollars an hour above the local prevailing wage I would gain access to a much higher quality employee. If you can't afford to pay a higher wage, you need to look at what you can do to make your farm a preferred work place.
For me, it has helped that I am flexible on work hours and don't get real uptight when some of my guys have a manana attitude where showing up at 8:10 is as close as they can get to 8:00 - they just stay a little longer at the end of the day and still get the work done. I don't pay my guys a whole lot, but I do offer health insurance and a flexible work schedule to accomodate their college classes or just their desire to work less than 40 hours a week. For me, I've found it better to hire 4 people at 30 hours a week than 3 at 40 hours a week. Getting good 40 hour a week people would be more expensive than the 30 hour a week people and I would also lose some of the flexibility I have with my part-timers. As the farm grows, I'll need to revisit this, learn spanish and figure out a way to pay enough to get some good full timers.
Regarding WWOOFERS, I can't imagine finding a pole long enough that I would use to touch this type of help. I like my employees to come to work in the morning and go home in the evening, I definitely don't want to live with them. They need their time and I need mine.
Andy

Allan Balliett wrote:
We are really getting the shaft on our H2-A farm workers this season. Until they arrive, I'm hiring local people to help on the farm. It's a nightmare, really. The average person doesn't last more than 3 days (and by 'day,' I actually mean 4-6 hours) and doesn't arrive on time on any of those days.

I'm looking now to try to hire some High School students. Local farmers have told me that I should pay High School students about $5 an hour. That seems very light to me, but, then again, $8.50 to $10 we offer adult workers seems very high for what we are getting in return. (In fact, what we get in return is VERY depressing when I look at what it costs us. Worse, of course, is how much of my own time is consumed in just the acting hiring and re-hiring. Oh, here's a new time waster: this is the first year we've had 'shopping WWOOFERS," wwoofers who want to come to the farm for a tour to see if they want to come back later and wwoof. I've yet to understand how come people think I've got so much time. I should have gone into soybeans, I think.)

Anyway, sorry for the tirade.

Thanks

-Allan in WV
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