Agriculture: Where All Employers Pay Below the Average Wage
Written by Bruce Goldstein Friday, 26 February 2010 14:40
This news article from Highlands Today in Central Florida has a relatively extensive discussion of the pros and cons of the H-2A program regulatory changes that Secretary Solis has made, effective March 15. The article also reveals the growers' innate feeling of entitlement to exemption from the marketplace. The H-2A program, under the rules in place since 1987 until Bush changed them in early 2009, and under the Solis regulations, requires employers to pay the average wage paid to farmworkers in the state as determined by USDA farm labor surveys. The growers say they can't afford it.
How did the average wage get to be the average wage? It's the reverse of Lake Woebegone, where are all the children are "above average." In agriculture, everyone somehow pays below the average.
"Changes may cost farmers but boost worker wages," Highlands Today, Feb. 26, 2010.
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