Ottawa—A survey of farm compensation practices released by the Canadian Agriculture Human Resources Council (CAHRC) spells out the challenges facing farmers and other agrifood employers looking for workers.

The agriculture labour situation runs somewhat counter to the overall Canadian job market where unemployment is expected to rise this year, the survey said. A labour shortage exists in agriculture and producers find it difficult to fill vacancies to meet commodity demand in both the domestic and global food chain. Recruiting difficulties like finding applicants with the required skills was reported as a top challenge by Canadian agriculture and food companies.

“This has resulted in an increased focus for agricultural employers to retain existing talent with strategies such as higher compensation, training and development and workplace flexibility reported in 2023. This also requires agriculture employers to be armed with compensation data and trends to effectively compete with strong wage rates and benefits when hiring critical talent.”

Rethinking the standard approaches of how employees are compensated and supported through benefits can serve to improve the current agriculture labour market shortages, the survey said.

Data was collected from 140 organizations and 609 individual employees for compensation benchmarking. Across all roles, the weighted average and median hourly rate increased with each level of increased role responsibility.

The weighted average for a farm manager ranged from $29.56 to $37.95 and the median from $30.00 to $39.90. The grain and oilseed sector paid the highest weighted average followed by finfish. Dairy paid the lowest farm manager wage across all industries by an estimated $4.00 an hour. Farm supervisor pay ranged from $20.25 to $31.00 median and $21.32 to $31.20 for the weighted average.

Farm worker pay ranged from $18.00 to $28.00 median and $18.72 to $27.19 for the weighted average. Apiculture paid the lowest hourly rate at $18.00 median for farm workers while grain and oilseed paid the highest at $28.00 median.

Farm labourer roles were paid the least and consistently ranged from $16.50 to $21.67 median and $16.60 to $21.50 for all the industries with grain and oilseed the highest at $21.67 median. Specialized roles hourly rates were $25.00 median and $26.75 weighted average. There are clear areas of opportunity for the dairy industry to pay more competitive wages with regards to managers and supervisors to compete for more experienced and skilled talent

The swine sector had the second-highest hourly rate which gives a recruitment advantage, the survey said. Also, bonus and incentive plans were not utilized by all the producers to further attract, engage and retain employees.

In addition to compensation, enhancing total rewards should be a goal for agricultural producers to elevate their employee offerings. A comprehensive plan of benefits, training and flexibility can be a catalytic approach to improving the current and future agriculture workplace.

Current and future employees will want access to training and development offerings, beyond commonly cited on-the-job training, the survey said. Making health, dental and vision benefits more readily available to employees would be a great first step by commodity employers, as well as offering these benefits for those employed part-time.

Another example of opportunities that exist in the agriculture labour market is work life balance which is supported through programs like vacation, sick time and flexibility, the survey saud. While some agriculture employers offered these benefits, many participating organizations do not offer any flexible work arrangements or basic benefits like sick days.

The survey is available on CAHRC’s web site https://cahrc-ccrha.ca

This news story prepared for National Newswatch