Replacing Migrant Labor

 It’s an ongoing argument - farmers constantly and rightfully complain about a shortage of workers, and labor groups come back with “pay higher wages and you’ll get field hands.” Who’s right? Both sides have their points but we’ll begin with the heart of the issue…wages or input costs and the economy’s changing the landscape.

 Dwight Johnson with the Idaho Department of Labor: “I have lots of friends within the ag community that feel like they’re limited in their price and what they can sell their product for so they’ve got limitations like any businessman does on how much they can spend to produce that product, but that’s the fact of economic life and now that we’ve got an economy in which you’ve got a higher unemployment rate, and therefore can pay a lower wage and get folks to work for you because it’s a buyers market if you’re an employer right now. So I would think that farmers are going to be able to get more Americans to do those jobs but what every economy 

They are, just like any other business, if they’re going to compete for a workforce then they’re going to have to pay a wage that will attract that work force. Depending on what the farmer wants somebody to do then there’s a wage that they’re gonna have to pay in order to attract that labor.”

 But on the farmer’s side of things.

 (Johnson) “The unemployment rates high and you’ve got a lot of folks listing for those jobs as well as every other job.