USDA to Begin Survey on Labor

From the USDA:

During the second half of April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will conduct its biannual Agricultural Labor Survey. 

The survey will collect information about hired labor from more than 1450 northeastern farmers and ranchers.

“The beginning of the growing season is usually the perfect time to look at farm labor,” said King Whetstone, Director of the NASS Northeastern Regional Field Office. “The data that farm operators provide through NASS’s Agricultural Labor Survey allows northeastern state governments and federal policy-makers to establish labor policies based on accurate information and help ensure farmers can get sufficient hired labor for their operations.”

USDA and the Department of Labor will use statistics gathered in the Agricultural Labor Survey to help establish minimum wage rates for agricultural workers, administer farm labor recruitment and placement service programs, and assist legislators in determining labor policies.

In the survey, NASS asks participants to answer a variety of questions about hired farm labor on their operations, including total number of hired farm workers, the average hours worked, and wage rates paid for the weeks of January 11-17 and April 12-18. For their convenience, survey participants have the option to respond online.

“Due to seasonal variation and despite collecting farm labor data twice a year, we publish data on a quarterly basis,” Whetstone said. “This approach helps us ensure that anyone using our data can perform more accurate analyses.”

NASS will compile, analyze and publish survey results in the Farm Labor report, to be released on May 21. All information NASS collects in this survey will be kept strictly confidential, as required by federal law. This and all other NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov.

For more information on NASS surveys and reports, call the NASS Northeastern Regional Field Office at (800) 498-1518.

New York Farmers Oppose Hike in Minimum Wage

From New York Farm Bureau:

During a conference call today with reporters, New York farmers spoke out against plans to raise the minimum wage to $10.50 or higher. 

The farmers stated the increase would strain farmer income and place farmers in this state at a further competitive disadvantage.

New York Farm Bureau has compared other minimum wage rates across the country, including those states New York directly competes with in the dairy industry.  

California is the only large dairy state with a similar minimum wage.  California stands at $9.  However, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Idaho are all at the federal standard of $7.25. 

But this isn’t just about rising wage rates for those earning the minimum. Farmers in New York routinely pay well above current rate. 

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farms in New York already pay an average agriculture wage rate of $12.15.  Farmers said increasing the New York minimum wage would lift all wages on their farms.  

They said a worker, who already earns a higher hourly rate based on experience and time on the farm, would also expect a bump in salary to match. 

Sandie Prokop, a dairy farmer with Crossbrook Farm in Schoharie County, estimates a $1.75 wage increase and additional payroll taxes for her six employees would add an additional $44,354 to her payroll. This is at a time when the income her family’s farm receives for milk has dropped dramatically in recent months. 

Because of dropping milk prices set by the federal milk marketing order, she said her milk income has fallen more than $40,000 in the first two months of the year and expects the March check to be even lower.  Prokop said they have already cut costs where they can and do not know where else to trim should labor costs climb again.

“You can’t give one employee a raise and not another,” said Prokop. “It’s a significant amount of money without any time to prepare. We are price takers and not price makers.  We do not have that $45,000 available. The choices become very dark and very serious for everyone that is milking cows and farming in New York.”

Brian Reeves of Reeves Farms in Lysander in Onondaga County, runs a vegetable and fruit farm, including a U-pick operation. He said this increase would drive up wages across the board for his employees, estimating a $10.50 rate and added payroll taxes would cost his farm an additional $50,000 a year.

“This isn’t a story of “gee, we have minimum wage workers and can’t give them another quarter.” We are already paying well above it. Our entire payroll creeps up when the minimum wage goes up and has a profound impact on your bottom line,” said Reeves. 

“Where the rub is for me is I compete with Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, states that typically have fewer expenses to farm than we do in New York,” Reeves said.

New York Farm Bureau has continually supported keeping the state minimum wage linked with that of the federal minimum wage, as our farmers are competing in a global marketplace. Farmers can’t pass along the increases to wholesalers, processors and grocery stores because of competition from farms in other states and countries.

“Farmers can’t simply raise our prices because labor prices are going up.  This is not a wise strategy to support agriculture or business in the State of New York,” said Dean Norton, New York Farm Bureau President.

 

Vilsack Speaks of Farm Labor, Immigration For Labor Day

Weekly column from Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack:

Each year on Labor Day, we take time to reflect on the productivity of America’s workers and our responsibility as a nation to support their efforts.

This year, as we gather to celebrate, Congress has a timely opportunity to create an even stronger American workforce for generations to come. They can do so by fixing America’s broken immigration system.

Vilsack

The broad impacts that immigration reform would have for our economy are well documented.

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and Social Security Office of the Chief Actuary, the bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill would boost our economy by 3.3 percent, reduce the deficit by a projected $850 billion and add nearly $300 billion to our Social Security system by the end of the decade.

But immigration reform would also address critical labor issues. 

Today’s broken system leaves millions of workers in the shadows – a dangerous situation for these workers and their families – and provides no clarity for U.S. employers, the majority of whom want to do the right thing. At a time when we should be providing rules that empower American productivity, today’s broken immigration system only furthers uncertainty.

This is especially true for agriculture. Farm workers drive an industry that is directly related to one in 12 American jobs. They’re in the fields as crops are planted, cared for and harvested. They’re in packing houses and processing facilities.  They help get food to markets and stores that ends up on kitchen tables across the country.

About half of these workers are unauthorized, and many more are employed under a temporary worker program that is difficult for farmers and farm workers alike to understand. In the years to come, the resulting instability in our agricultural workforce threatens productivity on farms and ranches, and impacts rural communities where agriculture is a thriving part of their economies.

The commonsense immigration reform measure passed in June by the U.S. Senate, with bipartisan support, would provide a comprehensive set of rules to ensure a stable and adequate workforce for agriculture.

It expands and reforms the temporary worker program to allow a three-year visa for agricultural workers, while enacting a pathway to citizenship for temporary workers who are committed to continue working in agriculture.

And it provides a fair opportunity to earn U.S. citizenship for those who are in our country without authorization – a process that will require going to the back of the line, settling taxes and paying fines for those who want to earn citizenship.

The result would be a modern system that makes sense. It would bring millions of farm workers out of the shadows and give them a fair chance to strive for the American dream. It would help farmers and ranchers focus on growing more and expanding their business. It would give agriculture the people power to keep driving economic growth and creating jobs.

This Labor Day, I’m hopeful that Congress can find a way to solve this modern labor challenge facing our nation.

We have a long history in America of supporting those who work hard – and Congress has the chance to make even more progress by passing commonsense immigration reform.

Opinion Against Farm Workers Fair Labor Practices Act

The Farm Workers Fair Labor Practices Act passes a couple of weeks ago in the state Assembly. Mostly Downstate and NYC assembly members voted in favor of it.

Assembly members from Central New York -- Bill Magee, William Magnarelli, Al Stirpe, Claudia Tenney, Will Barclay, Bob Oaks, Tony Brindisi, Gary Finch, Brian Kolb and Marc Butler -- voted against the proposal. Assemblyman Sam Roberts of Syracuse and Barbara Lifton of Ithaca voted in favor of it.

The bill grants collective bargaining rights to farm laborers, requires employers of farm laborers to allow at least 24 hours of consecutive rest each week, provide for an eight-hour work day for farm laborers, requires overtime rate of one and a half times the normal rate and makes provisions of unemployment insurance law applicable to farm laborers.

Farmers were against the law and New York Farm Bureau spoke in their defense, stating:
An overwhelming majority of farm employees, who routinely return to the very same farms every year to make a good wage and receive fair treatment, are not the ones demanding changes to the law that will restrict their hours and limit new opportunities. This 25 plus year old bill ignores the fact that numerous state and federal regulations already exist that mandate fair labor, health and safety standards, farm worker agreements and employee protections, all of which New York Farm Bureau supports. Farmers have never asked to be exempted from basic laws which govern all New York employees, such as the payment of minimum wage requirements, whistleblower protections, anti-human trafficking statutes and workplace harassment.

Go to  http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20130602/OPINION02/706029975 this link to read an opinion piece about the law.