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  • From: WENDY & RANDY GRAY <hoemangray AT embarqmail.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Wages
  • Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:29:06 -0400 (EDT)

I work through a local employment agency, who does the screening for me.
Yes,they do the payroll and pay all the taxes, workers comp etc. I do pay for
that, but only employ someone from June-early October around 20 hours a week.
But, in Oregon, the minimum wage increased from $7.95 to $8.40/hr 1/1/09!
So, doesn't give us much room to pay more for experienced workers. I also
occasionally use a landscape company (they have workers used to working 8
hours weeding/spreading mulch, etc.) for large jobs I know my "lesser paid"
employees can't do in a few hours. And, the job is done quickly and very well.

I need to investigate interns, doing my own payroll, etc., but for the
limited hours, this works for me.

Thanks for starting this thread.
Wendy in OR
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Fellenz" <fellenz AT fltg.net>
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 4:44:02 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Wages

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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>
>
>
>
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