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The purpose of this study is to gather information from fruit, vegetable and dairy farm employers regarding agricultural workforce issues in New York agriculture. The survey provides new insights into five key topic areas; the number of workers on New York farms, employee wages and benefits, characteristics of the Hispanic workforce, attitudes among farm operators regarding proposed State labor law changes and Federal immigration reform. Expanded survey estimates of the peak agricultural workforce in this study, including part-time and full-time workers, totaled 33,200. The focus of this report is on the fruit and vegetable industry where the number of hired employees in the fruit industry is estimated to be 14,700 and the number of hired employees in the vegetable industry is estimated to be 8,900. Fruit farm employers reported that experienced general laborers were paid an average of $10.65 per hour and inexperienced general laborers were paid an average of $8.52. Vegetable farm employers reported that experienced general laborers were paid an average of $9.98 per hour and inexperienced general laborers were paid $8.25 per hour. Hispanic workers play an increasingly important role in the New York fruit and vegetable industry. The survey found that 11,200 (47%) fruit and vegetable workers speak Spanish as their first language. Regarding their Hispanic workers, farm employers reported that the two issues requiring the most assistance were immigration issues and English training. At the time the survey was conducted, New York’s labor advocates and farm employers were debating legislation that would have required farm employers to provide their workers overtime pay and collective bargaining rights. The majority of fruit and vegetable farmers surveyed indicated that they would be very concerned if their workers were allowed to form unions or if they were required to pay overtime. Regarding Federal immigration reform, survey participants were asked to rate the importance of national immigration reform, a path to citizenship and a guest worker program to their business. While all three issues were important to farm managers, a path to citizenship was reported to be slightly less important than national immigration reform or a guest worker program.

The purpose of this study is to gather information from fruit, vegetable and dairy farm employers regarding agricultural workforce issues in New York agriculture. The survey provides new insights into five key topic areas; the number of workers on New York farms, employee wages and benefits, characteristics of the Hispanic workforce, attitudes among farm operators regarding proposed State labor law changes and Federal immigration reform. The agricultural workforce for fruit, vegetable and dairy farms in New York including part-time and full-time workers totaled 33,200. The focus of this report is on the dairy industry where the number of hired dairy employees is estimated to be 9,600. Dairy farm employers reported that experienced general laborers were paid an average of $9.98 per hour and experienced milkers were paid an average of $9.71. Dairy employers also reported salary ranges for hired managers. They reported that 8% of middle managers and 38% of top-level managers earn salaries of $50,000 or more annually. Hispanic workers play an increasingly important role in the New York dairy industry. The survey found that there are 2,600 Hispanic dairy workers in the State. Regarding their Hispanic workers, dairy farm employers reported that the two issues requiring the most assistance were immigration issues and language skills. At the time the survey was conducted, New York’s labor advocates and farm employers were debating legislation that would have required farm employers to provide their workers overtime pay and collective bargaining rights. The majority of dairy farmers surveyed indicated that they would be very concerned if their workers were allowed to form unions and if they were required to pay overtime. Regarding Federal immigration reform, survey participants were asked to rate the importance of national immigration reform, a path to citizenship and a guest worker program to their business. While all three issues were important to farm managers, a path to citizenship was reported to be less important than national immigration reform or a guest worker program.

Agricultural workers in most states are exempt from some labor law provisions that apply to employees in most other workplaces. In New York State agricultural labor advocates and farmers have battled politically over this issue for more than four decades. Two of the most contentious issues are collective bargaining and overtime pay. Currently laws for most other workers grant rights to employees who engage in union organizing activities. In addition, most employers are required to pay an overtime rate of time and one half for hours worked over 40 per week. In New York, labor advocates would like to see both of these exemptions for agriculture removed. Eleven states in the United States have laws that protect agricultural workers who wish to engage in collective bargaining and union organizing activities. In addition, four states have overtime pay provisions for agricultural workers. Introduced in the New York State Legislature in 2009, the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act would have provided farmworkers with collective bargaining rights and overtime pay. It also contained other provisions viewed as having less impact on the agricultural industry. The proposal reignited a contentious debate and political standoff between farm business interests and the state’s labor advocates. The bill passed the Assembly on June 8, 2009. Leaders in the Senate had difficulty getting the bill to the Senate floor for a vote. Finally, as part of the 2010 state budget battle, Senator Pedro Espada, Senate Majority Leader, was successful in bringing about a vote. The legislation was defeated by a margin of three votes. Seldom has farmworker rights legislation gotten so close to passing both houses of the New York State Legislature with the prospect the Governor would sign it. The future prospects for overtime pay and collective bargaining rights for New York’s agricultural workers will continue to be dependent upon which political party controls the State Senate. The November 2010 elections resulted in the Republican Party recapturing the Senate majority making it unlikely that legislation similar to the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act will be enacted in the near future. Both sides are extremely well organized and it appears possible this standoff could continue for many more years

The purpose of this study is to gather information from farm operators regarding agricultural workforce issues in New York agriculture. In the fall of 2007 the USDANASS New York field office agreed to add one page of agricultural labor related questions to its annual surveys of the New York fruit, vegetable, dairy and livestock industries. The 1,245 survey responses provide new insights in four key topic areas: the number of farm workers in New York agriculture, attitudes toward labor supply issues, attitudes toward immigration reform and attitudes regarding human resource management practices. The survey procedures allowed estimates of the number of workers on farms primarily involved with fruit, vegetable, dairy or livestock production. The total agricultural workforce for fruit, vegetable and dairies in New York, including part-time, full-time, family and non-family workers totaled 46,800. In addition it was estimated that the number of contract workers hired on New York fruit, vegetable and dairy farms was 6,700. Farm managers were asked how concerned they were that there may not be sufficient workers to employ in their business over the next three years. Survey respondents expressed considerable concern with more than 60% of the farmers who employed Hispanic workers indicating that they were very concerned about attracting sufficient workers over the next three years. Survey participants were also asked how important national immigration reform, a path to citizenship and a guest worker program were to their business. Importance was rated on a five point scale with 1 being not important and 5 being very important. Farm operators with Hispanic workers rated national immigration reform a 4.43 in importance. They rated a path to citizenship a 3.34 in importance and a guest worker program a 4.29 in importance. So while all three issues were important to farm managers a path to citizenship was reported to be less important than national immigration reform or a guest worker program. Respondents were also asked how important they felt five human resource practices were. Again a 5 point scale was used. Respondents placed a higher importance on competitive wages and benefits (3.87), safe comfortable working conditions (4.34) and opportunities for advancement (3.23). They felt that off-site training opportunities and continuing training and development were of slightly less importance. The survey provides new information about attitudes and concerns of farm employers at a time when labor supply and immigration reform issues are very important to the future of their businesses. These results allow leaders in NY agriculture to more accurately describe current conditions surrounding agricultural labor in the state. The survey also provides a starting point for additional research on immigration and labor supply issues.

Between the fall of 2007 and the spring of 2008, 71 golf course superintendents responded to a survey related to their immigrant employees and immigration policy issues. The objective was to determine golf course superintendents’ concerns and perspectives regarding labor availability, immigration policy and the immigrant workforce. The survey was completed by golf course superintendents who manage businesses that currently employ Hispanic workers. This was done intentionally to identify concerns and attitudes of supervisors who already rely on Hispanic workers. The survey provides a preliminary indication that golf course superintendents who currently employ Hispanic workers tend to have a high percentage of Hispanic workers on their staff. On average, survey participants reported that 72% of their workforce at the peak of the season was Hispanic. More than 50% of those surveyed indicated that at least 80% of their workforce, at the peak of the season, was comprised of Hispanic immigrants. Issues relating to immigrant workers and immigration policy are important to the golf course superintendents surveyed. Nearly 75% are concerned, quite concerned or very concerned about accessing adequate labor supplies over the next three years. More than 80% are concerned, quite concerned or very concerned about immigration issues as they relate to the golf course management profession. Survey participants also reported on the perceived importance of specific immigration, reform options. Rated most important was comprehensive immigration reform followed by achieving legal status or citizenship for immigrant workers and an increase in the number of H-2B visas allowed. The H-2B program offers a source of authorized, seasonal immigrant workers but only 13% of those surveyed had H-2B workers. Others expressed an interest in the program. Golf course superintendents acknowledged the importance of the H-2B program and commented on several needed improvements. They wanted to see the program streamlined, made easier to use and made less expensive. They also wanted to see an increase in the annual cap on the number of H-2B workers allowed into the program. In response to an open ended question, golf course superintendents offered their opinions regarding a solution to immigration issues facing their profession. Most of the superintendents surveyed want to have government programs in place that will allow them to hire legally authorized immigrant workers.

New York State is the third largest dairy state in the United States based on milk production (behind California and Wisconsin). Since the mid-1990’s, the trend toward hiring Hispanic workers on New York’s larger dairy farms (usually 400 cows or more) has steadily increased and currently the trend is moving to smaller dairies (in the 50-100 cow range). The purpose of this study is to create a demographic profile of Hispanic dairy workers on New York farms and to gain an understanding of the workers’ perceptions regarding their employment situation. The information was collected in personal interviews from 111 Hispanic workers on 60 farms, and included compensation and other information collected from employers. Three- fourths of the surveyed workers are from Mexico and about one-fourth from Guatemala. They are typically young (84% were 30 years old or younger) and almost always male. The workers are not highly educated, only 51% have attended no more than primary school. One-fourth completed secondary school, including 2% who attended or graduated from a university. Hiring Hispanic dairy workers is still a relatively new practice, as 72% of the employers reported that they hired their first Hispanic employee since January 2000. In addition, 73% of the surveyed employees said their tenure with the farm had been two years or less. On average, surveyed workers had three U.S. employers since they began working in this country. Starting wages reported by employers for their Hispanic employees ranged from $5.50 to $10.00 per hour, with a mean of $6.87. Current wages range from $5.50 to $11.50, with an average wage of $7.51. Hispanic dairy employees received a variety of employer provided benefits, including: housing with water, heat and electricity (91%), transportation (52%), telephone in residence (51%), satellite television (47%), and space for a garden (63%). On average, the Hispanic dairy workers surveyed worked 62 hours per week and only 16% worked less than 51 hours per week. These workers also said they would like to work an average of 66 hours per week if possible and that they would look for other employment if they could not work at least 55 hours. Both workers and employers identified challenges in a cross-cultural employment situation. Employees indicated that their top three greatest challenges were crossing the border, language and lack of freedom to do what they want. Employers, on the other hand, indicated that the top three obstacles were language, cross-cultural understanding and immigration issues.

As economies of size become increasingly important in production agriculture, farm sizes continually increase. For the farm members of the Northeast Dairy Producers Association (NEDPA), this results in larger herds, more acres of crop production, and more full-time, non-owner employees. The NEDPA membership realizes the important roles these individuals play in their businesses and are devoted to the study of successful human resource management practices. This research quantifies and illustrates the internal pay structure and enumerates the current employee satisfaction levels present on these farms for different subsets of employees. To enumerate the study, the NEDPA membership was divided into two groups. The first group, consisting of farms with herds smaller than 500 cows and greater than 1500 cows participated in the internal pay portion of the study where a researcher conducted personal interviews with the farm owner or manager and gathered detailed compensation information for each full-time, non-family employee. A second, more homogeneous group of farms, those with herd sizes ranging from 500 to 1500 cows, participated in both the internal pay study described above and the employee satisfaction study. On these farms, the owner or manager provided detailed compensation information about the employees and then the employees themselves were interviewed to assess their job satisfaction levels. In those cases where some employees were unavailable, another employee was asked to administer the survey to their coworkers and return the completed survey to us. We also gathered general managerial and production data at both groups of farms. Employers classified each employee as one of five competency levels based on supervisory capacity, level of decision-making authority, and skill level. These classifications determined the internal pay structure on these farms. A natural hierarchy related to tenure and education is evident as the members of each competency level become more experienced and educated from one band to the next. Total compensation values also increase with higher competencies. Mean compensation values and standard deviations for each level provide benchmark bands, indicating ranges of compensation values and illustrating the total compensation for 65 percent ofthe employees within each competency level. ii The internal pay data is also used in two regression analyses where total compensation and annual cash wage are the different dependent variables. The explanatory variables consist of farm and employee characteristics. The annual wage model has a slightly stronger R-squared value and coefficients that are more consistent with economic theory and a priori information but both models illustrate several interesting factors consistent with their respective dependent variables. Total Employee Satisfaction was measured through four core dimensions: autonomy, variety, feedback, and task identity. While the Total Satisfaction scores were fairly strong, the most interesting result is that Feedback is the core dimension in which employees are least satisfied. This result was supported by correlating the satisfaction components with variables such as compensation, experience, and demographic factors. These statistics indicate that feedback is not associated with wages or other factors but more likely with the amount and quality of communication an employee has with the farm owners or managers. Many employers utilize some non-traditional compensation techniques. Qualitative observations showed that employees enjoy these non-cash benefits but frequently underestimate their values. This is a problem for producers as they compete with seemingly higher wages from other area employers. This concern can be alleviated, again, by good communication between employers and employees about all aspects ofthe job, including compensation values.

As economies of size become fundamentally important in production agriculture, farm sizes continually increase. For dairy producers, this results in larger herds, more acres of crop production, and more full-time, non-owner employees, which result in more human resource management concerns. Research is needed to better understand the human resource aspects of the dairy industry. This research quantifies and illustrates the internal pay structure and enumerates the current employee satisfaction levels present on the farms of members of the Northeast Dairy Producers Association (NEDPA). To enumerate the study, the NEDPA membership was divided into two groups. The first group consisted of all NEDPA member farms. This group participated in the internal pay portion of the study where an enumerator conducted personal interviews with the farm owner or manager and gathered detailed compensation information for each full-time, non-owner employee. A second, more homogeneous group of farms, those with herd sizes ranging from 500 to 1500 cows, participated in both the internal pay study described above and the employee satisfaction study. On these farms, the owner or manager provided detailed compensation information about the employees, and the employees themselves were interviewed to assess their job satisfaction levels. General managerial and production data were also gathered from the owners or managers at both groups of farms. Personal interviews on 92 farms resulted in compensation data for 709 employees, satisfaction information for 296 employees. The internal pay structure on these farms was determined from classifications the employers made for each employee with respect to that employee's supervisory capacity, level of decision-making authority, and skill. The data indicate a natural hierarchy related to tenure and education, as the members of each competency level become more experienced and educated from one band to the next. Total compensation values follow the same upward trend with the standard deviations, or depths of the bands, increasing with higher levels of competency. The pay bands are supported in two regression analyses where total compensation and annual cash wage are each regressed against farm and employee characteristics. The annual wage model has a slightly stronger R-squared value and coefficients that are more consistent with economic theory and a priori information, but both models illustrate several interesting factors consistent with their respective dependent variables. For instance, both models indicate that larger herd sizes translates into higher cash wages and total compensation while the opposite is true with respect to acreage. According to the analyses, each competency level is equivalent to about $3,000 in total compensation. While the average annual compensation is $27,433, the compensation packages varied with respect to value and complexity. Typically, cash wage constitutes a smaller percentage of the total compensation package with increasing competency demonstrating that upper level employees receive more compensation through benefits and incentives. Health insurance and housing were the compensation

Many florist crop producers have reported difficulty with attracting qualified employees to positions within their businesses. The purpose of this study was to define the difficulties florist crop producers face in attracting qualified workers. Managers of 72 florist crop production firms in Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania participated in a telephone survey designed to gather information on recruitment and selection issues for florist crop producers. The survey results revealed that recruitment practices were not used as frequently as they could be. It also appeared that managers were doing a better job with the selection process than they were with the recruitment process. In addition, compensation appeared to be closely linked to the ability of employers to effectively recruit job applicants. - One third of the employers surveyed indicated that attracting qualified employees to the business was not difficult, while two-thirds indicated that attracting qualified job applicants was either somewhat or very difficult. 1 The study found that florist crop production firms with more than 12.5 FTEs (full-time equivalents) used recommended, more formal recruitment and selection methods more frequently than producers with fewer FTEs. When comparing businesses by how difficult managers said that attracting qualified workers is, there were significant differences. Those who said attracting qualified applicants was not difficult operated significantly larger businesses. In addition, managers who said attracting workers was not difficult were more satisfied with the quality of their workers and their rate ofemployee turnover and perceived that their employees were more satisfied with their jobs. Improved recruitment practices coupled with a competitive wage and benefit package appear to be keys to improving the ability of employers to attract the most qualified workers for positions within the business.

As small finns grow from employing just a few people to employing 10 or more, there is an increasing need for more fonnalized human resource management practices. The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent managers of florist crop production finns used formalized human resource management practices in their businesses. Managers of 104 florist crop production firms in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan participated in a telephone survey designed to gather information on specific personnel management practices. The study revealed that while some finns are using fonnalized personnel management practices, the majority are not. Those who use formalized personnel management practices tend to be, but are not exclusively, larger firms. Larger finns for the purposes of this study were considered to have 10 or more employees and comprised 47% of the firms in this study. Managers surveyed were also asked to report their concerns regarding personnel management. Overwhelmingly, the concerns voiced tended to be in the areas of compensation, particularly health insurance, and recruiting a qualified work force.