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In a previous post, we talked about having volunteers on the farm. But what about paid workers? How much should they earn? This is a tricky question. Of course, a farm is a business, so if we can reduce our expenses as much as possible, we can increase our profits, and either invest them back into the business, or take them out and use them for our personal endeavors. In this sense, we should pay our workers as little as possible to keep costs low.

But of course, no one would do that, because we all know “you get what you pay for.” Underpaying laborers is a quick ticket to dissatisfied and unproductive and even disgruntled workers. They don’t work as hard, they make more mistakes, they show up late (or not at all sometimes), or they just take other jobs. If they really think they are being cheated, they might even do some damage to the farm.

But on the flip side, workers who feel respected and well-paid are content with their jobs. They are eager to show up to work, put in the extra effort to see things to completion, double-check to make sure they got it right, put up with the inevitable frustrations and accidents and bad luck. They are proud of their work, and keep a sharp eye on the other workers, and even on you, because they want the farm to succeed. So, in this sense, we should pay our workers as much as possible to keep productivity and satisfaction high.

Well shoot. We can’t do both. What do we do? I’m going to take the stance that we should try as much as possible to pay our workers a living wage, at a minimum – plus a bit extra over that if at all possible, to keep them happy and satisfied. You may not agree with me, but at least hear me out, and see where and how you disagree. I’d appreciate your feedback on this topic.

First off, what’s a living wage? This is an important term. Technically defined, a living wage is “the hourly rate that a person in a household must earn to support his/herself and their family.” This wage varies widely depending on how many adults and children are in the household, how many adults are working, and where they live. If you’re unsure what the living wage is for your city or county, you can use the MIT Living Wage Calculator (https://livingwage.mit.edu/)

As you can tell, the living wage is higher than the state minimum wage, because it incorporates the assumption that everyone working 40 hours a week should be able to afford food, shelter, a vehicle, health insurance, and other basic living expenses. Is this reasonable? I think so. While it’s possible for people to get by with less, should they have to? You might argue that most farm workers are unskilled labor, that the work doesn’t require any education or certification. But I honestly think there is no such thing as unskilled labor. Like we discussed in the post on volunteers, if your workers are truly unskilled, then your farm is probably in shambles. They might not need a college degree, but good workers certainly have skills and knowledge and training, and ideally, a little intuition and wisdom too.

If we want our farms to be successful, they need to be fully integrated with the ecosystem. This is just a natural fact. Sure, we can try to bend nature a little bit here and there, but at the end of the day, the farm runs best when it is in harmony with the rhythms of its environment. But I’m not just talking about the physical environment (the earth, the weather, the soil), but every other aspect of the ecosystem – social, economic, scientific. Everything we do is give and take. We want to both use the resources available to us and invest back to them. We use the earth, but we also invest in the earth. Likewise, we use and invest in our employees, we use and invest in the economy, we use and invest in technology.

Now if you’re still with me on a philosophical level, that’s great. But you might not be with me on a practical level. For many new farms or operations, paying workers a living wage is just not feasible right now. I get you. Once again, a farm is a business, and a business isn’t built overnight. Getting it to a point of stability and productivity takes time, planning, analysis, patience, faith, and a little bit of luck.

So what do you do if you can’t afford to pay your workers a living wage yet? There are a couple of options, but I want to stress that they should all be temporary solutions– means to an end. First, you can trade food for labor, at a suggested rate of $3/hour. In other words, provide meals for your employees, which is the equivalent of paying them an extra $3 dollars an hour over an 8 hour day. Second, you can provide housing as a trade for labor, at a suggested rate of $8/hour.

Both may seem like pretty good deals for you, but again, these are not permanent solutions. Especially in the case of housing, these arrangements create some massive power imbalances. Workers become dependent on you, and this can also lead to some of the dissatisfaction mentioned above. The goal is to be able to pay workers enough that they can source what they need away from the farm from other aspects of the local ecosystem. They should be investing their wages back into the local economy too. And here again the farm benefits the ecosystem.

Ok, great, so let’s say you’ve got some trades in place, and you’re building your business– how long should you expect to take to get to a place of stability and productivity? Well, are you starting from scratch? or transitioning an existing business? If you are bootstrapping from scratch, it could take anywhere from 1-5 years. If you’re growing annuals, you could reach stability in 1-2 years. If you’re growing perennials, it could take 3-5 years. And if you’re growing a mixture, it will probably be a blend of those. If you’re not bootstrapping, but have some funding already, then you could get stable in a year or so. And if you’re transitioning an existing business, it should save you about a year in each of the examples stated above. But keep in mind that this is farming– weather happens. Markets fluctuate.

In conclusion, the concept of paying our workers a fair wage is a difficult topic. It’s not only hard to figure out exactly what that amount is, but also tricky to figure out how to get to a point of stability so we can even afford to pay that amount. This can feel like a big hassle, just one more problem to figure out, but remember there is all the difference in the world between a worker who is proud and satisfied and a worker who is frustrated and disgruntled. We may not always be able to perfectly care for our plants, but we can at least do our best to take care of our people.

Image credit: quinn.anya

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