SW “Ohia” | ricefarmer14,
Red, I’ve made a lot of money but that’s not the point. The point is I have friends in other industries who also make a lot of money and they are able to find people to help and they aren’t paying 75k a year.
Have you offered a comparable bundle of pay and benefits with variances to account for the difference in job description? If somebody is reliable enough to run 70+ hour weeks irrigating in rice country, they are probably reliable enough to be working in a factory or office. Outside of the people who are just plain addicted to working in Ag (not many), you have to entice somebody to take your open position.
Having worked in ag, blue collar, and white collar positions, I can pretty safely say that Ag jobs aren’t very fun. Frankly they are bad. You are working physically harder, for more hours, and have poorer pay, along with no retirement. Why would anybody do that when they can get something even slightly better?
I’ve invested multiple millions ( some came from outside this industry) into this business, I just don’t see the dedication required to make me want to pay someone that kind of money... why do random people who bring nothing but labor to the equation think they are worth so much. I’m doing it so I must be worth something...
If you view your employees at just random labor, you will constantly be looking for more “labor.” Honestly you might consider the urban day labor halls in your surrounding towns/cities. You would get a fresh group every morning that will work for minimum wage. This is what some factories do here for positions that require no skill but aren’t fun to work in. (Hot, repetitive heavy lifting, etc.)
If you don’t want to competitively compensate normal employees, that is fine. This is a free country and you can do so. Just remember that when you are constantly trying to find those workers. How valuable would that multi-million dollar investment be without a crew to make things happen?
If paying a competitive wage to your employees would mean you yourself don’t get a check larger than theirs, the whole situation needs reassessed.
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2 threads tonight on employee wages, time off and work ethic
