I’ve been reflecting lately on what attracts and keeps good employees.
I have a friend who works on high-power transmission lines. That sort of work isn’t for everyone, but he loves the field and he’s been doing it for decades.
It’s important work and he’s good at it; so good that he got promoted a few years ago to crew foreman after a fair bit of sweet talking and promises by his employer. One might look at that and think it’s well-deserved recognition for hard work and skill. When you speak to him privately, he’ll confess he has regrets.
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He’s received a small pay bump and a massive increase in stress and responsibility. He describes it as “not worth the extra $2 an hour.”
That increase is about a three per cent wage hike, based on publicly available average wages for his trade. He’s tried to go back to his old role, but his employer has been putting him off, saying they can’t find anyone to replace him.
Like the rational economic actor that he is, he’s now considering his options, including a standing offer he’s had from an old boss to join him at a new firm.
What makes workers happy is a complex question best viewed with an open mind on the part of employers.
In that light, a recent study into compensation and benefits in the Canadian agriculture sector is a welcome bit of self-reflection. It signals a sector that’s beginning to ask the right questions.
Rather than wondering “Why doesn’t anyone want to work anymore?” the question seems to have become “What’s keeping people from working for us?”
That’s a great start.
The Canadian Agriculture Human Resource Council looked at 140 agriculture organizations representing 609 employees.
It found that agriculture wages lagged sectors like construction, manufacturing and transportation. How much varied by farm type. According to the survey, the highest paid farm workers were on grain and oilseed farms, where managers earned nearly $38 an hour and workers earned an average of just over $27 an hour. On dairy farms, however, managers earned an average hourly wage of $26 and workers made $21.
Those are figures from inside the sector. Statistics Canada figures for 2023 put the average agriculture sector wage at $24.77 an hour, across all types of jobs. The same StatCan figures put construction wages at $36 an hour. Manufacturing paid an average of $33.50 an hour. Accommodation and food service paid just under $22.
While the CAHRC figures paint a relatively rosy wage picture, StatCan likely paints a more accurate one. Unlike the CAHRC report, key sectors like horticulture, beef and poultry aren’t missing from the StatCan dataset.
Using that apples-to-apples comparison, agriculture lags construction by more than $11 an hour, manufacturing by close to $9 an hour, and beats out retail and food service by less than $3 an hour.
The CAHRC study also found the sector lacks many basic benefits that employees have come to expect, such as holiday pay, health insurance and even sick days. Certainly many farms offer some or all of these benefits, but that seems to vary widely by sector too.
Farms are competing with other sectors for employees. Based on wages and benefits, it is positioning itself as, at best, a middle-of-the-pack employer.
Farming’s not an easy job. Hours can be long and stress levels can be high.
Having a clear and honest assessment of the labour landscape in agriculture is a great start. The next step is addressing some of the shortfalls this study has identified.
