wages question.

[blackpowder]

Have seen a few ads looking for men. Description was basically operate and maintain everything on the farm. Offering $17.00 / hr. Not sure if housing provided, it didnt say.
My question is. Is this for real?
The best employees are motivated by something besides money, but $17?
Good luck.
Or maybe a scam ad to get an LMIO.?

[Klause]

Investor farm here pays 16 straight time. Not sure how that works.



My new to farming guy gets 22 and the guy who is a neighbour and here as soon as I txt him gets 30.


Good help is hard to find so I figure reward tge guys who are good and love what they do

[farmaholic]

Who would they get for $17/hr that knows anything about farming and operating equipment? Good luck.

[binthere]

any farmhand with a class 1A that can service,set,run machinery of any sort without supervision is worth his weight in gold for some. at least $30.00 an hour. knowledge of welding and basic mechanical repair not including tech. repair worth an extra $5.00 an hour. you get to relax and he or she gets to go to hawaii also.

[malleefarmer]

24 plus house and work vehicle, superannuation and workcover insurance on top plus 7.5% holiday loading is standard.

Others pay all inclusive at $30 plus gst a contract rate

[Daylate]

The "without supervision" part is the big one. We've had a guy for 3 years now that is great. In his early 40's. Originally from PEI has worked out west mostly in oil but was done with that. But need to keep him away from himself and cannot work alone. Helps keep me going this time of year but after 3 years I was hoping for him to be able to accomplish more with less direction and organize himself better. All in all he does help bring the stress factor down. $22/hour. Some perks that don't cost much for us but help him out. ( interest free pay back on loans through us, commuter vehicle most the time, very flexible winter hours, year end bonus but not in cash.)
Have explained that if he can help keep the summer part time guys going on our projects outside of seeding spraying harvest that we would give him a raise but he doesn't seem to want the challenge so that's still all me for now.

[bgmb]

With men you get what you pay for most of the time.

[ajl]

What is worse is wages: competitive. Competitive with what? Just about as bad as: price on asking. Quote a wage and then people know whether you are serious. $17 per hour needs to be laughed at if you are needing any skills at all.

[jamesb]

I know of lots of guys with a starting wages of 17 per hour that moves up very quickly if the guy is worth it. Oil wages have come crashing down. Roughnecks is now 22 per hour.

[fjlip]

Min wage will soon be at $17, all the school kids will get that.
Try times 2, minimum, and try full time plus 4-6 weeks off plus benefits.

[farmaholic]

How many more acres would the operation have to farm to pay a "good" man what he's worth year round.

Economies of scale eh? How many acres per combine, drill, sprayer, man. Even big acreages are becoming multi family member operations(brothers, fathers, sons, uncles, cousins, sisters, mothers, daughters, aunts) Seems to be the trend.

[freewheat]

I pay my fall helper with feed grain for his hogs. He gets about 6 bushels of feed barley or 4 bushels of feed wheat an hour. He gets "free" feed, I get his aid for a few weeks. Works great for us.

[blackpowder]

Like I said. An ad to satisfy requirement to get foreign. Thanx guys, what I thought.

[Koldkanuck]

A while back, there was a BTO here that paid $16/hour for tractor operators, etc during seeding. The average rate at that time was about $8.00 per hour., so he was paying about double the average rate. All the good local farm hands went and quit their jobs and went to work for this guy. Easy work, all new leas d equip.,even had a few new leased 4WD pulling 50 feet of harrow packer bar. Well in about 18 days, 3/4 of those guys get called into the office and are told thank you guys, your laid off , seeding is mostly done and we can handle it from here.. What the hell some of theses guys said....we quit another farmer that we worked for, for 7-8 years, and he already got someone else hired...now what. This year, there are a lot of oilfield workers looking for work on farms this spring, and a lot of them are good old farm boys to begin with. Good luck this spring guys.

[fjlip]

How many more acres would the operation have to farm to pay a "good" man what he's worth year round.

Economies of scale eh? How many acres per combine, drill, sprayer, man. Even big acreages are becoming multi family member operations(brothers, fathers, sons, uncles, cousins, sisters, mothers, daughters, aunts) Seems to be the trend.

48 weeks X 40 X $30=57600, if you net $100/ acre, you need 576 acres.
Times more men = times 576 ???
Seriously that would NOT pay!