Fruits of their Exploitation
Written by Bruce Goldstein Wednesday, 27 August 2008 11:15
Farm labor, the author explains, is "tough work" for the workers, but, "also a headache for the owner, who must offer a pay scheme that both satisfies minimum-wage laws and motivates workers in an industry in which slacking is an understandable temptation." A headache to be required to pay the minimum wage for dangerous work? Slacking? Picture any one of those 12 workers who died from heat stroke this year while performing exhausting farm work in California and Mr Harford's description looks callous indeed.
This particular article refers to a farm in the UK. Since these are temporary foreign workers (usually from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia but from a few other places too), they are totally dependent on the employer for the scarce jobs in England. The employer can keep forming teams of the fastest-working foreign laborers and not invite back the rest.
As the article suggests, the farmer can also keep hiring low-level managers who, in the Florida sugar cane industry literally were called "pushers," to push the workers to keep picking faster and faster. Dependent on these jobs, the newest workers will quickly get the point: work really fast or you don't come back. And presto!! You've increased productivity without increasing wages!!
Now why this stupid employer required three economists to figure out what other greedy growers have figured out for generations is beyond me, but it's possible that, compared to the U.S., in England, where there is a higher minimum wage and health insurance coverage, there actually has been a greater sense of social justice, and less exploitation, in agriculture. Why Mr. Harford found this economic exploitation strategy so fascinating is a mystery.
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