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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: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:44:02 -0400

Allan,

It sounds like you have a nice system, especially with the bonuses and insurance. I'm not sure what your local labor market is like, but one thing you may want to consider doing is networking with local community colleges, especially if they have ag or horticulture to get some people.
Just to give you an idea of scale and what I am doing, for the last few years I have been farming 5 acres of mixed vegetables and fruit including ~10,000 sqft of hoophouse production, with a February - November work season. I flex the number of employees and hours through out the season depending upon available work and have also utilized employees on farm construction projects (when they have the appropriate skills) in addition to doing farm work. I usually have 3-4 p/t (max ~35 hours/week) employees on site during the main season and will need to hire 5-7 people each season to maintain this level of staffing. My full cost/hour for employees is >$11/hour once you figure in taxes, workmans comp, disability and insurance. Most employees start at $7.50/hr and get raises as their skill/effectiveness increases. Some crew members come back each season, including one who is returning for his fourth season this year. For most though, my expectation is that I will get one or possibly two seasons before they move on.
Since I am fishing in the shallow end of the pond, I have had to significantly adjust my expectations regarding promptness compared to what I looked for in an industrial setting. To this end, I have set up work practices on the farm so that people usually start the day on single person tasks - gathering tools and setting up for a group task, opening up greenhouses or hoophouses, small area weeding, etc... before moving on to group work. It also helps that until last year everything was done on site. Now that I have some ground ~1 1/2 miles from the farm that I am working, I will need to make additional changes to my system to make working there effective.
I wouldn't say that I have great employees (I hope none of them take offense if they read this), but I do have good employees who since I have tweaked my system to meet their abilities/behaviors, can get the job done. Most of my employees come to me through either a local community college which has a horticulture and conservation program or from referrals from current employees. Two of the professors there know me and have helped in recruiting employees. For piece rate pickers, my wife puts together a list of ~20 kids each season and we work through the list to get the people we need on each picking day. We usually have a maximum of 8 pickers a day and will go through the entire list of 20 to get the pickers we need. A lot of the kids come with a dollar target in mind - they need X in order to buy something and they work until they achieve the goal and then they are done.

Andy

Allan Balliett wrote:
Andy - I'm currently working with a 'bonus' system that pays a $2 an hour bonus every time 40 hours are completed without a tardy or an absence. It makes for a pretty solid monthly check, if you can come to work on time. We offer insurance, as well. It is hard for me to understand how you could give up your time to wait for the arrival for a tardy person, though. I assume that you are not as diversified as we are.

What sort of wages are you paying that allows you to acquire quality workers?

To tell you the truth, I haven't noticed any difference in what we pay and it's that fact that has caused me to look for the lowest possible wage and/or to work with a bonus system rather than a wage system.

Thanks for your ideas and experiences.

-Allan in WV

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.

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