CAHRC announcements concern wages in the agricultural sector

The Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Board has released a report on a recent study it conducted that looked at working conditions in agriculture.

609 employees from 140 different agricultural organizations took part in the survey, taking into account different levels of responsibility.

The study found that for all positions, the weighted average and median hourly wage increased with each level of increased responsibility in the position.

CAHRC provided the following information:

“In the industry/commodity comparison, the weighted average for the farm manager role ranged from $29.56 to $37.95, with the median ranging from $30.00 to $39.90. Cereals and oilseeds received the highest weighted mean and median for farm managers, followed by fish.”

“The dairy company paid the lowest farm manager salary of any industry, an estimated $4.00 per hour. Farm manager pay ranged from $20.25 to $31.00 for the median and $21.32 to $31.20 for the weighted average. The highest paid group of goods were cereals and oilseeds; the lowest was dairy.”

“Farmworker wages ranged from $18.00 to $28.00 median and $18.72 to $27.19 weighted average. Beekeeping paid the lowest hourly wage (median $18.00) for agricultural workers, while the highest was paid for grain and oilseeds (median $28.00). Farmworker roles had the lowest pay, consistently ranging from a median of $16.50 to $21.67 and $16.60 to $21.50 for all industries.

“Beekeeping paid the lowest hourly wage (median $16.50) to agricultural workers, while grain and oilseeds paid the highest (median $21.67). Hourly wages for specialty positions had a median of $25.00 and a weighted mean of $26.75 and ranged from $22.00 at the 25th percentile to $30.00 at the 75th percentile.”

“For fish farming, management positions ranked highest in the 75th percentile of earnings and were right behind them in all other categories, second only to grains and oilseeds.”

The survey also looked at non-monetary compensation by sector, which included health care, dental care, vision care, training and housing assistance.

Summarizing its findings, the CAHRC recommended that workers look at how pay metrics compare to current producer earnings to ensure pay is competitive in the marketplace.

Moreover, increasing total wages should be the goal of agricultural producers so that they can improve the level of their offer to employees.

“Rethinking the standard approach to how we reward workers and support them with benefits could help improve current shortages in the agricultural labor market. Workers who are adequately compensated by employers who can provide the resources they need create an interdependent solution to the growing employment gap.”