United States

Department of

Agriculture

Rural Business–

Cooperative

Service

RBS Research

Report 189

Cooperative Employee

Compensation, 1999

LIFE Insurance

Educat

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Education Education Educati

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Health Insurance
Abstract This report updates a 1993 study and looks at how education, cooperative function,

and geography influence compensation of cooperative employees. Unlike the original

report, this one addresses director compensation. Compensation varied from per diem

and travel to set fees for attending meetings.

Financial performance of the cooperative was the basis for bonuses, setting salaries,

and evaluating employees. Compared with other regions, employees in the East/South

Central received the largest salaries. The exception were sales representatives in the

West.

Benefits–life and disability insurance and educational assistance– were paid solely by

the cooperative. Paid vacations/holidays and paid sick days were most commonly

offered to all employees.

Keywords: Salaries, compensation, benefits, cooperative.

Cooperative Employee Compensation, 1999

Beverly L. Rotan

Rural Business-Cooperative Service

U.S. Department of Agriculture

RBS Research Report 189

October 2001
Preface This report updates a 1993 study and takes a comprehensive look at salaries and

fringe benefits that cooperatives offer to their mid- to upper-level employees, as well as

comparing new information with information obtained from cooperatives in the original

report. Added to the "new" survey was a question pertaining to the compensation of

directors which the original survey did not address.

Out of 400 cooperatives, 300 were randomly selected. One hundred cooperatives

were respondents from the original study. Included in this sample were marketing and

farm supply cooperatives with sales of at least $500,000. 

From the population, 4 percent either were out of business or did not meet the criteria

for the report. This brought the population down from 400 to 384 and the response rate

to 45 percent. Fifty-five of the original cooperatives responded. Of the remaining cooperatives, 119 or 48 percent returned completed surveys. 

i
Contents Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iv

General Survey Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Director Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Cooperative Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Salary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Bonuses and Basis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Benefits and Other Perks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Director Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Salary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Bonuses and Their Basis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Benefits and Other Perks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Director Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Cooperative Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Salary and Ranking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Bonuses and Their Basis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Benefits and Other Perks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Director Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Comparing 1993 and 1999 Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

ii
Contents Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Sample Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

iii
Highlights As with any organization, cooperatives seek to hire competent employees. Salaries

and benefits are key in attracting some employees. Other factors includes geographical locations and job titles.

Benefits may be direct (retirement, health and life insurance, educational assistance,

and bonuses—performance based and yearly) or indirect (paid vacations, sick/personal days, use of company car, or payment for mileage when a private car is used on

cooperative business). These benefits may be paid solely by the cooperative, by the

employee, or by both.

Unlike the original, the "new" survey inquired about director compensation. Although

directors’ fees and expenses were a small part of total costs, director compensation

was important to many cooperatives. This fee served as a small incentive for farmers

to sacrifice time normally spent on their own operations devoting several hours of service each month to guiding their cooperative.

Some of the most significant survey findings are:

● Most respondents said that employees had bachelor’s or associate’s degrees.

● Job responsibility was ranked first by a majority of respondents for all job categories in setting salaries. Performance ranked next.

● Thirty-four percent indicated that all employees listed in the survey received

bonuses, usually based on financial performance of these cooperative.

● Cooperatives alone were more likely to pay for life and disability insurance and

educational assistance for the general and office managers. Retirement benefits were usually shared by the employee and the cooperative. More responses

indicated that programs of locals were tied to their regional’s retirement plan.

● Directors were usually given per diem for travel while on cooperative business

along with a fee for attending board meetings. Annual expenses for directors

ranged from $1,200 to $6,000.

● The East/South Central region had the highest salaries for all job categories

except for sales representatives in the West.

iv
v
Cooperative Employee Compensation, 1999

Beverly L. Rotan

Rural Business-Cooperative Service 

U.S. Department of Agriculture

In today’s economy, companies are undergoing

major downsizing and mergers. The loss of competitive employees may cost some companies margins.

Attracting and keeping a smaller productive workforce

may be a challenge. Cooperatives must offer employees compensation commensurate with their skills and

experience if they are to meet this challenge.

Compensation can be both direct (e.g., salaries) and

indirect (benefits). It is important to provide a proper

mix of direct and indirect compensation to attract and

keep competent employees. Competent employees will

enhance margins and membership savings for cooperatives.

Although there are no universal norms to guide

the choice of what to pay any particular employee,

some internal and external factors should be considered. Cost management (sales and operating expenses); job responsibilities; the employee’s background,

experience and/or skills; and the number of employees needed are some of the internal factors that may

influence salaries and benefits for employees. External

factors include Federal and State Government policies

and regulations, the labor market, and geographical

locations.

General Survey Results

Data for this report were obtained in 1999 from

100 original respondents as well as 300 cooperatives

from a random sample. A total of 174 surveys were

returned--or 45 percent of the active cooperatives in

the sample. Figure 1 shows 35 percent were grain, 30

percent farm supplies, and 15 percent fruit and vegetables and other marketing cooperatives (livestock, poultry, dry beans and peas, rice, sugar, fishing and miscellaneous). Sales ranged from a low of $524,895 to a high

of $800 million. Cooperatives sampled provided marketing services and farm supplies.

Questions regarding educational background,

salaries, benefits offered, principal products marketed

or sold, sales, directors’ compensation, and any

changes that occurred in the past 5 years were included.

This report also looked at overall responses. They

were broken down by overall results, cooperative

function, region, and sales groupings. The breakdown

by cooperative function is limited to salaries and benefits for the five job categories. Figures 2 and 3 depict

the percentages for five regions and four size groups.

1

Farm supplies—30%

Fruit and 

vegetables—15% Dairy—5%

Other 1—15%

Figure 1—Cooperative type

Grain—35%

1 Other includes marketing cooperatives ,cotton, livestock, poultry,

dry beans and peas, rice, sugar, fishing, and miscellaneous.
There were five job categories in this study:

1. The chief executive officer (CEO), president, or general manager: executes policies established by the board

to achieve the cooperative’s objective.

2. The office manager, accountant, or controller:

keeps timely and accurate records of cooperative’s

financial standing and, in some cases, carries out policies set forth by the CEO or cooperative board.

3. The division manager: carries out and supports

policies and objectives as they apply to a particular

division.

4. The field representative: uses expertise on how

best to cultivate land through soil testing and other

tools and recommends appropriate products and innovative technological trends to improve farm operations.

5. The sales representative: keeps abreast of new

products on the market and meets with farmers to take

orders and inform them of new products. Some sales

representatives also make deliveries.

Education

The survey sought to learn of the educational

level of employees in each job category. Levels of education included a high school, some college, or college

graduate with a bachelor’s, associate’s, master’s or

doctoral degree. None of the employees had a doctoral

degrees so this level was not included in the tables.

Through all job categories, most employees had

associate’s or bachelor’s degrees. Except for division

mangers and sales representatives, the trend was for

employees to have some college experience. The percentage of division managers with a high school education or bachelor’s/associate’s degrees was the same,

38 percent (table 1).

Compensation

Compensation for employees came in indirect

and direct forms. Indirect compensation included benefits that ranged from paid vacations to educational

assistance. Direct compensation included most exclusively salary, wages, pay, and bonuses. The survey did

not ask respondents to differentiate between base

salary and additional bonuses. Some salaries probably

included bonuses.

Salaries—These are usually affected by

longevity. Some reported a salary range rather than the

current salary for each of their positions to protect

privacy of employees. When the salary range was

given, the average of the high and low was used to

produce a single observation for aggregating the data.

In a few instances, it appears that respondents

reported salaries for part-time or seasonal employment. Reporting part-time employment makes the

averages lower. Table 2 includes descriptive statistics

for salaries: low, high, median, average, and the number of observations below and above the average. In

this case, the median or midpoint more reliably indicates what most cooperatives are paying employees

because unlike the average, it is not affected by observations that might be clustered at one extreme or the

other. The data may be skewed as indicated by this latter measure and by the difference between the mean

2

Region 3—

18%

Region 4—20%

Figure 2—Regions 1

Region 5—22%

Region 1—18%

Region 2—22%

Small—27.7%

Super—30.1%

Medium—27.7%

Large—14.5%

Figure 3—Cooperative Size

1 Region 1 = East/South Central; Region 2 = Corn Belt; Region 3 =

Lake States; Region 4 = Northern Plains; and Region 5 = West
and the median. Except for the general manager, the

average is larger than the median. More observations

fell below the average because of fewer relatively high

salaries.

As expected, the general manager had the highest

median salary followed by the division manager’s and

office manager’s salary. Some respondents may have

substituted division manager for assistant manager.

The office manager’s and field representative’s median

salaries were the same at $35,000.

Salary Ranking—Respondents were asked to

rank specific factors that contribute to setting salaries.

Rankings were from 1 (most important) to 6. Evidently,

more explanation in the survey’s instruction may have

been needed because many respondents used the 1 to 6

as a measure of importance for each factor separately,

rather than indicating each factor’s order of

importance. As a result, two or more factors were often

given the same rank.

Also, some factors were assigned no rank, presumably because respondents considered these as having no impact on salary determination.

Job responsibilities, decision-making capabilities,

performance, experience, education, and the impact of

other firms in the area were the ranking factors. The

survey had listed these factors in the expected order of

importance for most jobs. The results generally reflected this pattern. Some bias seems to have occurred, but

critical factor differences did show up. For example,

job responsibility was ranked "1" by a majority of

respondents for all job categories except sales representative. For that job, the third listed factor (performance) was the most important. This may reflect that

it is more feasible to monitor a sales representative by

using sales performance. It is also interesting to find

that performance was the next highest ranked factor

for all job categories except for the general manager.

3

Table 1—Educational background of employees, 1999 1

Level of General Office Division Field Sales

education manager manager manage representative representative

Percent

Number of respondents 163 168 112 83 105

High School 16 24 38 27 37

Some College 25 26 21 22 20

College Graduates

Bachelor’s/Associate’s 51 43 38 51 40

Master’s 8 7 4 1 3

1 There were no employees with a doctoral degree.

Table 2–Annual salary by employee category, 1999

Job

Salary range 1

Responses

Job below/

Category Low High Median Average above average

————————————————Dollars———————————————— Number

General Manager 18,000 600,000 40,300 34,494 30/122

Office Manager 8,750 164,496 35,000 40,184 111/44

Division Manager 25,000 135,000 40,000 47,129 66/34

Field Representative 17,500 75,000 35,000 37,987 38/34

Sales Representative 10,750 135,000 30,000 38,471 69/29

1 Respondents gave salary information for full- and part-time employees. Also, not every respondent answered for all jobs or salary ranges.
Decision-making capabilities was a key factor for general management. Respondents ranked it just slightly

less than job responsibility for that job category. What

other firms in the area were paying was regarded as

the least important factor in all job categories except

the office and division manager. For the remaining job

categories--general manager, field, and sales representatives–the least important factor was education.

The survey also asked if performance was a factor in setting salaries, how performance was evaluated/measured, and by whom. Evaluations are usually

conducted by the board of directors for management

and by general management for all other employees.

Most respondents indicated that the cooperative’s

financial and employee’s job performance were the

basis for evaluating most employees. Unlike in the previous study, personality and attitude traits (neatness,

ambition, dependability, accuracy, timeliness, and

common sense) were less important factors for evaluation, although in some cases they were mentioned by a

few respondents. About 10 mentioned personality and

attitude traits.

Some new responses included: 1) cost of goods

manufactured, 2) how fruit is stored, 3) expenses, 4)

return on invested capital, 5) controlling cost, 6) salary

surveys, 7) rebates to members, 8) attitude productivity, 9) meeting objectives, 10) return vs. competitors, 11)

employee management, 12) effectiveness of each

department, 13) CENEX’s evaluation method, 14) job

responsibilities, 15) gallons of sale, 16) membership

feedback, 17) innovation, 18) market pay ranges, 19)

management by objectives, 20) competitiveness, 21)

achieved goals, 22) return on assets and local equity,

23) total volume handled, 24) operation smoothness,

and 25) how nearly objectives were met.

Bonuses—These were used to reward

performance of the employee and can be viewed as an

added benefit and/or salary. Respondents were asked

if bonuses/commissions were given to employees. The

number of responses is larger than the total number of

cooperatives because in some instances, all employees

in all five job categories were given bonuses. There are

870 possible responses (one response for 174

cooperatives with five job categories). Thirty- four

percent of the responses indicated bonuses were given.

The percentages of bonuses were divided almost

evenly between all job categories, from 24 to 18

percent.

The basis for receiving bonuses included financial performance factors (margins, net earnings, profit

centers), gross volume/sales, percentage of top quality

product, performance, sales growth, return on equity,

how cooperative performs compared with industry

averages, management by objectives, nonmember

activities, and "other." Some respondents indicated

bonuses were paid but they did not indicate the basis

and were placed in the "other" category. Table 3 indicated responses given.

In some instances, the job category revealed the

reasons a bonus was given. General managers, office

managers, division managers, and field representatives were more likely to be given bonuses based on

financial performance factors. Sales representatives

were more likely to be given bonuses based on gross

volume or number of sales.

Benefits

Those such as retirement; health, life, and disability insurance; and educational assistance can be paid

for by the cooperative, the employee, or both parties.

Educational assistance may range from paid seminars

and short courses to full college courses. Most benefits

across all job categories were either paid by the cooperative or shared by it and the employee. Two patterns

surfaced. First, the cooperative paid for life, health and

disability insurance, and educational assistance for the

general manager and office manager. Secondly, more

than likely retirement was paid by both the cooperative and the employee (table 4).

Responses ranged widely about what formula

was used for retirement/pension plans. Some plans

are financed solely by the cooperative, the employee

may have shared some percentage based on salary or

service time, the employee pays all, or there was no

retirement plan. Some cooperatives may offer more

than one retirement plan. Twelve cooperatives said

they paid all retirement plan costs under a defined

program. In most cases, these cooperative retirement

plans were tied to years of service. When the cooperative and employees shared the cost of retirement benefits, a variety of formulas were used.

These formulas included: "cooperative matches,"

"cooperative pays a percentage," and "profit sharing"

(percentage of net profit/wages). The formulas ranged

from employer paying 2 percent of gross salary,

employer contributes 1 1/2 percent if profit is

$100,000; cooperative matches 50 percent of employees

contribution; minimum 2 percent of salary or 10 percent of net divided by all participants whichever is

greater; cooperative pays administrative costs plus

matches 50 percent of employees’ contribution; cooperative matches 6 percent of employee contribution

(cooperative pays 5 percent to employees 10 percent);

4
cooperative matches employees’ contribution (anywhere from 1 to 50 percent of employees’ contribution); cooperative contributes 5 percent of net savings;

investment mutual funds; cooperatives matches 2/3 to

employees’ 1/3 contribution; employee contributes 75

percent, cooperative 25 percent; etc. In most cases,

there was a "cut off" of the amount or percentage of the

cooperative’s contribution–usually a percent of salary.

Three respondents were affiliated with their regional’s

retirement plan.

For other cooperatives, pension plans such as the

401K plan were used. These were either paid exclusively by employees or by both the cooperative and

the employee. Again, the contribution by cooperative

and employee varied greatly.

Other Benefits—These included "perks" or

extras that an organization may offer of employees.

Respondents were asked if their cooperative offered

paid vacations/holidays and sick days, use of

company car, first class travel, and mileage (private

5

Table 3—Responses of basis of bonuses for specified employees, 1999 1

Job Number of

category responses Responses

General manager 36 Percent of net, annual pay, profit, percent of local earnings, percent of gross

sales, yearly profit/volume, board decisions, annual cooperative income,

discretionary performance, how cooperative performs compared to

industry average, net profits, performance, percent of years and wages,

Christmas bonuses, shopman gets 20 percent of shop labor, and return on 

equity.

Office manager 22 Percent of annual pay, percent of salary, 1 percent of local earnings, 2 to 5

percent, gross sales, annual profit, how cooperative performs compared to

industry averages, local earnings, local net profits, local profits, local returns,

profit, work done and profit, sales, net of department, percent of wages, and

return on equity.

Division manager 24 Performance, annual cooperative profits, cooperative annual income, how

cooperative performs compared with industry averages, local earnings, local

profit, local net profit, net profits, profits, sales, percent of wages, and return on

equity.

Field representative 16 1 percent of local earnings, acres applied, cooperative annual income, growth,

local net profits, net profits, performance, sales (five times), sales increase, sales

volume, profit centers, and volume.

Sales representative 21 Profit center, percent of wages, sales (seven times) volume, sales volume, sales

increase, performance (two times), net profit, local profit, local net profits, how

cooperative performs compared to industry averages, 2 to 5 percent of gross

sales, and 1 percent of local earnings.

All categories given bonuses 46 Merit, profit, performance, cooperative net income, profitability, and non-member

activities, pretax profit, percent of profit, net margins, obtain goals and

objectives, net, longevity, local net profit, year-end financial statement,

cooperative performance compared to private business, cooperative and

individual performance, overall profitability, bonus tied to performance and

management by objectives, Christmas bonus, board decisions, 6 percent of

salaries, 5 percent of net local savings, percent of everything over $5,000, 4

percent based on a 40-hour work week salary, 12 percent of annual salary, 1

percent of profit, percent of yearly profits, percent of local profits, percent of

improvement on profit, and percent of net profit.
car). For all job categories, paid vacations and holidays

were more widely made available to employees (table

5). From 92 to 97 percent of respondents also paid their

employees’ sick days. The remaining "perks"–paid

training, mileage (private car), and use of cooperative

car--were next in order. First-class travel was the least

offered "perk" but most likely given to general

managers.

Director Compensation

Although director fees and expenses were a small

part of total costs, director compensation was important to many cooperatives. This fee was a small incentive for farmers to sacrifice time normally spent on

their own operations and devote several hours of service each month to guiding their cooperative. The original survey did not address the area. Of the 155

responses, 83 percent gave directors some type of compensation. Most compensated their directors by giving

them per diem for travel when they were on cooperative business. Also, there was an attendance fee paid

per regular meeting. These fees ranged from a low of

$15 to a high of $100 per regular meeting. For annual

meetings, meals and lodging were provided for both

the spouse and director.

Other benefits given directors included mileage

for travel when using private cars–21 cents to 33 cents

per mile. The most common rate was 30 cents per mile.

Some board chairmen were paid a "salary," but

not many cooperatives reported using this practice.

Those that did report salaries for the board chairman

paid as much as $5,000 per year. Surprisingly, two

cooperatives also reported compensating directors

through accidental death/disability or dental insur6

Table 4—Benefits offered and how paid, 1999

Job category and Health Life Disability Educational

who pays Retirement insurance insurance insurance assistance

Percent 

Number of respondents 150 153 138 133 91

General Manager

Cooperative pays 30 50 70 85 62

Employee pays 5 1 7 2 8

Both pay 65 48 24 13 31

Number of respondents 147 153 138 130 95

Office Manager

Cooperative pays 30 50 69 86 64

Employee pays 5 3 8 2 7

Both pay 65 48 23 12 28

Number of respondents 104 106 99 93 75

Division Manager

Cooperative pays 27 43 68 86 64

Employee pays 6 2 7 4 8

Both pay 67 55 25 10 28

Number of respondents 74 76 70 65 58

Field Representative

Cooperative pays 26 41 69 83 67

Employee pays 3 0 4 5 9

Both pay 72 59 27 12 24

Number of respondents 93 97 91 85 67

Sales Representative

Cooperative pays 31 44 65 86 64

Employee pays 3 1 9 4 7

Both pay 66 55 26 11 28
ance. Finally, discounting extraordinary cases, total

expenses for all directors ranged from $1,200 to $6,000

annually.

Cooperative Types

Of 174 respondents, 35 percent were grain cooperatives; 30 percent sold farm supplies; 15 percent marketed fruit and vegetables; and 5 percent were dairy

cooperatives. The rest (15 percent) were "other" marketing cooperatives–cotton, livestock, poultry, dry

beans and peas, rice, sugar, fishing, and miscellaneous

cooperatives.

Education

Grain and farm supply cooperatives had the

highest percentage of general and office managers

with high school diplomas and some college. Also, the

general and office managers in all cooperatives had

associate’s or bachelor’s degrees. Few employees had a

master’s degree and none had a doctoral degree (table

6).

Salary

Table 7 shows low, high, median, average

salaries, and the number of observations below and

above the average, by cooperative function. The low

end of the salary ranges may be skewed because some

reflect seasonal employment wages. More observations

fell below the average because of a few relatively high

salaries and the mean was larger than the median in

each instance. Consequently, the median is a more representative measure of cooperative salaries.

The median and average salaries for general

manager and office managers were highest in the

"other" category of cooperative. For all job categories,

the median salary ranged from $24,500 to $105,000 and

averaged from $28,564 to $129,133. Fruit and vegetables cooperatives had the highest actual salary for general managers as well as the highest sales. Statistically,

the number of respondents reporting may have affected averages. There were many more respondents in

farm supply and grain cooperatives. Responses to

salary information by the "other" and dairy marketing

cooperatives were small. Therefore, salary data for this

group may be skewed because of a relatively few high

or low salaries.

Bonuses and Basis

Although most cooperatives did not give bonuses, those that did generally gave to all of the five job

categories. However, distribution of bonuses to job categories varied by type of cooperative. On average

among job categories, cooperatives were pretty evenly

spread. In the 1993 study, more sales representatives

received bonuses than field representatives in all types

of cooperatives except grain cooperatives. Data from

the present survey indicates that grain cooperatives

had the highest percentage of bonuses given across all

job categories (table 8).

As a rule, bonuses were tied to the job functions.

For example, sales representatives’ bonuses were

based more on sales. Financial and employee performance and sales were the most commonly indicated

factors for basing bonuses for other job categories.

Generally, more bonuses for grain and farm supply

cooperatives were based on financial performance

and/or performance and sales.

7

Table 5—Other Benefits offered, 1999

General Office Division Field Sales

Benefit manager manager manager representative representative

Number of responses 162 159 108 77 97

———————————————————Percent————————————————————

Paid vacations/holidays 100 100 100 100 100

Paid sick days 92 92 97 97 93

Use of cooperative car 59 18 45 60 42

First class travel 12 6 9 5 6

Paid training 78 82 93 96 87

Mileage (private car) 73 70 72 68 66
Benefits and Other Perks

The survey showed that a larger percentage of

respondents of all cooperative types were more apt to

pay for life and disability insurance and educational

assistance, while health insurance and retirement was

paid for by both the cooperative and employee for all

employee groups (table 9). The exception was dairy

and other cooperatives. In this case, the cooperative

paid solely for the retirement for general and office

managers and field and sales representatives. This

trend has remained the about the same as that of the

1993 survey, when the largest percentage of cooperatives paid retirement insurance for general managers,

office managers, and sales representatives.

"Other" benefits (table 10) were usually offered

by cooperatives such as paid vacations and sick days,

along with first-class travel, use of company car, and

mileage reimbursement (private car when on cooperative business). The availability of these benefits were

more broadly spread across all cooperative types and

8

Table 6—Educational levels by cooperative type, 1999 1

Job category and Fruits and Farm

education Dairy vegetables Grain Supplies Other 2

Percent 

General manager

High school 13 8 17 24 6

Some college 13 20 34 20 26

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 75 52 45 51 46

Masters 0 20 3 4 23

Office manager

High school 30 21 28 28 14

Some college 20 7 36 28 23

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 50 61 36 37 55

Masters 0 11 0 7 9

Division manager

High school 25 50 32 43 44

Some college 0 19 30 13 6

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 75 31 34 43 50

Masters 0 0 5 0 0

Field representative

High school 57 50 15 26 17

Some college 14 30 30 17 0

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 29 20 52 57 67

Masters 0 0 3 0 17

Sales representative

High school 57 20 33 53 9

Some college 29 20 21 19 9

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 14 60 44 25 82

Masters 0 0 3 3 0

1 No employees had a doctoral degree.

2 Other includes marketing cooperatives–cotton, livestock, poultry, dry beans and peas, rice, sugar, fishing, and miscellaneous–with low

responses.
job groups. By cooperative type, at least one-fourth or

more of the respondents indicated general and office

managers were paid vacations and sick days. It was

more likely that first-class travel was offered to general managers than to any other job categories in all

cooperative types.

Mileage reimbursement for all employees in

grain and farm supply cooperatives were more evenly

distributed, but responses were limited.

Director Compensation

By type, dairy had 9 responses, fruit and vegetable, 20; grain, 56; farm supply, 45; and "other," 19.

Responses varied. Dairy cooperatives paid mileage

plus $5 per meeting, per diem, paid expenses to convention, health insurance, paid travel and dinners;

travel and meals; and phone, accidental death/dental

insurance.

9

Table 7—Salaries for specified employees and cooperative type, 1999 1

Salary range Responses 

Cooperative type below/

and job category Low High Median Average above average

————————————————Dollars———————————————— Number

Dairy

General manager 18,000 185,000 84,500 87,125 4/3

Office manager 18,000 64,000 24,500 41,523 4/3

Division manager 61,232 85,000 76,000 74,077 1/2

Field representative 20,000 40,000 33,574 33,191 3/3

Sales representative 20,000 60,000 39,250 39,350 3/2

Fruit and vegetables

General manager 30,000 600,000 65,000 108,154 15/7

Office manager 16,224 164,496 45,500 49,730 15/9

Division manager 25,000 87,250 48,000 55,214 9/5

Field representative 30,000 71,431 43,500 48,643 6/4

Sales representative 22,000 120,000 78,000 68,060 3/6

Grain

General manager 25,000 175,000 55,000 61,508 40/15

Office manager 8,750 180,000 32,250 34,542 26/24

Division manager 25,000 95,000 33,000 41,276 22/16

Field representative 20,000 51,512 35,500 36,204 15/12

Sales representative 15,000 50,000 29,000 32,111 20/15

Farm Supply

General manager 20,000 300,000 46,000 60,775 33/16

Office manager 16,515 120,000 26,750 32,128 34/16

Division manager 25,000 83,500 37,500 40,901 17/11

Field representative 17,500 52,500 33,000 33,391 12/11

Sales representative 10,750 47,500 28,952 28,564 17/19

Other 2

General manager 36,000 300,000 105,000 129,133 9/6

Office manager 15,000 160,000 47,500 67,882 11/6

Division manager 32,000 135,000 61,000 64,077 7/6

Field representative 41,500 100,000 50,000 60,250 4/12

Sales representative 40,000 135,000 70,000 70,722 6/3

1 Respondents gave salary information for full- and part-time employees, but not in all job categories or salary ranges.

2 Other includes marketing cooperatives–cotton, livestock, poultry, dry beans and peas, rice, sugar, fishing, and miscellaneous–with low

responses.
Fruit and vegetables paid travel; $100 plus per

diem; $600 per director, travel/dinner; $50/meeting,

$200 per year, $25/meeting; $20/meeting; $100/meeting plus expenses; board chairman received $5,000

annually, $15/meeting; mileage; and $3,600 per year

per director. Grain, farm supply, and "other" cooperatives had responses similar to other types of cooperatives.

Other benefits given directors included mileage

for travel when using private cars–from 25 cents to 32

cents per mile. Most commonly mileage reimbursement was 30 cents per mile.

Regions

The United States was divided into five geographic regions–Corn Belt, Lake States, Northern

Plains, West (Pacific and Mountain), and East/South

Central (the Southeast, Northeast, and South Central

regions)--to maintain anonymity due to insufficient

data, number of cooperatives in a region, and for statistical analysis. In this section, results of the surveys

are presented by region (figure 4). Most respondents

10

Table 8—Bonuses for specified employees, 1999

General Office Division Field Sales

Type manager manager manager representative representative

Percent

Dairy 6 5 5 6 7

Fruit and vegetables 10 9 7 6 10

Grain 39 50 41 42 42

Farm Supplies 29 22 29 32 28

Other 1 16 13 17 14 14

1 Other includes marketing cooperatives–cotton, livestock, poultry, dry beans and peas, rice, sugar, fishing, and miscellaneous.

Figure 4—Regional Breakdown

West

Northern Plains Lake States

East/South Central

Corn Belt
11

Table 9—Benefits and how paid, for specified employees, by cooperative type, 1999 1, 2

Health Life Disability Educational

Type and Retirement insurance insurance insurance assistance

————————— —————————— —————————— —————————— ——————————

job category C E S C E S C E S C E S C E S

Percent 

Dairy

General manager 57 14 29 29 14 57 80 0 20 83 0 17 75 25 0Office manager 57 14 29 29 14 57 75 0 25 83 0 17 75 25 0Division manager 40 20 40 20 20 60 75 0 25 80 0 20 75 25 0Field representative 50 25 25 25 0 75 75 0 25 75 0 25 75 25 0Sales representative 60 20 20 40 0 60 75 0 25 72 0 25 75 25 0

Fruit and vegetables

General manager 32 11 58 45 0 55 82 6 12 100 0 0 45 9 45Office manager 32 11 58 48 4 48 85 6 12 100 0 0 50 8 42Division manager 23 15 62 47 6 47 85 8 8 100 0 0 63 13 25Field representative 11 0 89 56 0 44 86 0 14 100 0 0 40 0 60Sales representative 29 0 71 56 0 44 75 0 25 100 0 0 40 0 60

Grain

General manager 30 4 67 64 2 34 80 4 17 89 2 9 71 3 26Office manager 30 4 67 63 2 36 79 4 17 90 0 10 74 3 23Division manager 26 3 72 56 0 44 76 5 19 94 0 6 74 3 23Field representative 29 0 71 56 0 44 77 3 20 93 0 7 73 4 23Sales representative 26 0 74 54 0 46 80 6 14 94 0 6 79 0 21

Farm Supply

General manager 19 4 77 49 0 51 51 15 34 76 3 22 50 15 35Office manager 19 6 75 47 2 51 49 19 33 78 5 16 48 15 37Division manager 15 6 79 33 0 67 45 13 42 71 11 18 48 13 39Field representative 5 5 90 33 0 67 45 10 45 65 12 24 56 19 25Sales representative 23 3 74 40 3 57 42 18 39 79 7 14 39 17 43

Other 3

General manager 57 0 43 33 0 67 71 0 29 54 21 25 73 0 27Office manager 47 0 53 35 0 65 71 0 29 83 6 11 50 0 50Division manager 57 0 43 38 0 62 69 0 31 83 8 8 100 0 0Field representative 57 0 43 10 0 90 78 0 22 75 13 13 50 0 50Sales representative 56 0 44 17 0 83 73 0 27 73 9 18 100 0 0

1 Total may not add due to rounding.2 C = cooperative pays only; E = employee pays only, and S = cooperative and employee pays.3 Other includes marketing cooperatives–cotton, livestock, poultry, dry beans and peas, rice, sugar, fishing, and miscellaneous–with low responses.
were in the Corn Belt and West (22 percent) followed

by the Northern Plains, (20 percent), and Lake States

and East/South Central (both at 18 percent).

Education

The largest percentage of respondents revealed

general manager, office manager, and field representatives had bachelor’s/associate’s degrees (31 to 69 percent) in all regions. More division directors in the Corn

Belt, West, and East/South Central had high school

educations (table 11).

Sales representatives with college degrees were

more prevalent in the Corn Belt and Lake States. For

sales representatives, high-school-educated and

employees with a college degree tied in the Northern

Plains and East/South Central regions at 40 percent. In

the West, 42 percent of sales representatives had a high

school education.

12

Table 10—Other benefits for specified employees, by cooperative type, 1999

Type and job Paid Paid First-class Paid Cooperative

category vacation/holiday sick days travel training car Mileage

Percent

Dairy

General manager 25 26 50 22 38 26

Office manager 25 26 0 22 0 26

Division manager 14 13 50 17 15 15

Field representative 18 17 0 22 31 15

Sales representative 18 17 0 17 15 19

Fruit and vegetables

General manager 28 23 38 26 34 28

Office manager 30 25 19 29 13 32

Division manager 20 26 13 21 23 18

Field representative 11 16 6 13 19 10

Sales representative 11 11 25 10 11 12

Grain

General manager 27 26 33 24 40 27

Office manager 26 25 25 25 9 26

Division manager 18 19 17 19 17 18

Field representative 14 15 17 15 17 14

Sales representative 16 16 8 17 18 14

Farm Supply

General manager 25 25 33 33 24 28

Office manager 26 26 13 11 25 25

Division manager 19 19 19 33 20 19

Field representative 12 12 17 11 13 12

Sales representative 19 18 18 11 18 16

Other 1

General manager 34 27 56 26 35 25

Office manager 25 28 22 25 18 30

Division manager 18 21 22 19 18 23

Field representative 10 10 0 12 14 8

Sales representative 14 13 0 18 14 15

1 Other includes marketing cooperatives–cotton, livestock, poultry, dry beans and peas, rice, sugar, fishing, and miscellaneous–with low

responses.
Salary

Table 12 shows a breakdown of salary data for

the five geographic regions. There were large spreads

between the high and low salaries probably because

some of the low salaries may have included seasonal

or part-time salaries. The median is a more representative measure than the average, low, or high salary.

Regional differences are significant. The difference seems to be spread more evenly across all regions

except the median salaries for general manager which

ranged from $42,500 to $60,000. The median range of

salaries between jobs and their respective regions were

closer than in the 1993 study.

The disparity is more obvious when looking at

the actual reported salaries. The East/South Central

region had the highest salaries for all job categories

except sales representatives in the West.

Bonuses

Cooperatives in the West were more likely to give

bonuses to their general managers. Forty-three percent

13

Table 11—Educational levels by region, 1999 1

Job category and Northern East/South

education Corn Bel Lake States Plains West Central

Percent

General manager

High school 12 23 24 11 14

Some college 26 23 31 22 25

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 59 50 44 56 45

Masters 3 4 1 11 16

Office manager

High school 35 25 22 19 24

Some college 23 27 26 22 29

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 36 44 51 52 31

Masters 6 4 0 7 16

Division manager

High school 76 45 27 58 63

Some college 10 15 35 8 25

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 11 40 38 33 0

Masters 3 0 0 2 13

Field representative

High school 6 45 23 28 22

Some college 19 5 35 17 22

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 69 50 43 56 56

Masters 6 0 0 0 0

Sales representative

High school 33 28 40 42 40

Some college 20 19 25 16 7

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 48 47 35 42 40

Masters 0 6 0 0 13

1 No employees had a doctoral degree.
said cooperative employees in the Corn Belt received

bonuses. It was 24 percent in the Northern Plains. A

relatively high percentage of bonuses were given to

sales representatives in the West. Table 13 shows those

percentages and the basis for determining bonuses for

each job category by region. Most respondents by

region indicated that all employees’ basis for bonuses

were on financial performance factors–sales, volume,

profit, profit center, local net profits, local earnings,

etc.

Benefits and Other Perks

Overall, most respondents in all regions indicated

that retirement was paid by both the employee and

cooperative (table 14), except the general manager in

the Corn Belt. Health insurance percentages were

almost evenly distributed between the cooperative

paying all benefits to being shared by both. Education

assistance was more likely paid for by the cooperative

in the Lakes States. Life and disability insurance was

usually paid for by cooperative in all regions.

14

Table 12—Salaries for specified employees and region, 1999 1

Salary Responses

Region and Number of ———————————————————————————————— below/above

job category responses Low High Median Average average

——————————Dollars—————————— Number 

East/South Central

General manager 33 30,000 600,000 60,000 64,348 18/7

Office manager 33 16,224 164,496 43,000 40,165 18/8

Division manager 22 25,000 135,000 64,750 52,133 11/4

Field representative 16 30,000 100,000 60,750 40,778 4/5 

Sales representative 15 18,000 102,000 61,500 39,367 9/6 

Corn Belt

General manager 25 18,000 200,000 42,500 67,554 16/17

Office manager 26 12,000 112,500 47,500 40,293 28/7

Division manager 15 25,000 100,000 45,000 45,765 11/6

Field representative 9 17,500 75,000 45,000 36,501 9/6

Sales representative 15 12,000 135,000 36,000 33,885 14/12

Lake States

General manager 35 20,000 225,000 60,000 81,800 9/12

Office manager 35 8,750 160,000 35,000 40,248 17/8

Division manager 17 32,000 85,000 40,000 46,931 14/8

Field representative 15 28,000 51,512 35,000 35,179 7/5

Sales representative 26 15,000 70,000 46,500 34,782 11/7

Northern Plains

General manager 26 38,500 250,000 60,000 64,818 21/12

Office manager 25 17,000 120,000 37,000 31,709 23/10

Division manager 22 30,000 77,500 63,500 42,902 16/7

Field representative 12 25,000 50,000 51,075 34,375 11/9

Sales representative 18 20,000 70,000 46,250 35,824 15/5

West

General manager 33 32,000 175,000 50,000 102,938 24/9

Office manager 33 16,000 72,000 28,000 50,019 23/10

Division manager 23 28,000 95,000 36,000 49,166 15/7

Field representative 20 20,000 47,500 34,000 47,871 11/5

Sales representative 22 10,750 120,000 30,000 55,244 7/8

1 Respondents gave salary information for full- and part-time employees but not for all job categories or salary ranges.
Other benefits or "perks" were paid primarily by

the cooperative. Paid vacations/holidays and sick

days were most popular. Paid training or mileage (private car) was the next largest percentage in all employee groups. First-class travel was an uncommon benefit

in all regions (table 15).

Director Compensation

Regionally, 63 to 76 percent of the responding

cooperatives compensated their directors. The

East/South Central region had 24 responses; Corn

Belt, 25; Lake States, 22; Northern Plains, 22; and West,

25. Responses varied. The East/South Central regions

included meals, per diem, mileage, $600/year, travel

dinner, $50/meeting, $100/meeting; Corn Belt, seminar, travel dinner, meals, per diem, dinner out once a

year for director and spouse, mileage, $75/board meeting, $30/special meeting, $30/committee meeting, etc;

Lake States, $100 meeting and expenses, board chairman received $5,000 year, $600/board president,

mileage, travel, accidental death/disability insurance,

phone, dental insurance, and health insurance;

15

Table 13—Bonus and basis, by region, 1999 1

Region and job category Responses

East/South Central

General manager Profit, 2-5% of gross sales, how cooperative performed

Office manager Profit, 2-5% of gross sales, how cooperative performed

Division manager Profit, how cooperative performed compared to industry averages

Field representative How cooperative performed compared to industry averages

Sales representative 2-5% of gross sales, how cooperative performed compared to industry averages

Corn Belt

General manager Coop’s annual income, profitability, accounts received, sales, percent of net sales, pct of

year’s wages, 2% local earnings, local net, performance

Office manager Coop’s annual income, profitability, accounts received, sales, percent of net sales, pct of

year’s wages, 2% local earnings, local net performance

Division manager Profit, net profit, % of wages, performance, profitability, cooperative annual income

Field representative Sales, cooperative annual income, % local earnings, performance, volume, growth

Sales representative Sales, volume, performance, profit, 1% local earnings, cooperative annual income

Lake States

General manager Percent of net, performance, annual profit of company

Office manager Percent of net, performance, annual profit of company

Division manager % of wages, net profit, performance, local profit, annual profit of cooperative

Field representative Sales increases, performance

Sales representative Sales increases, sales, local profit, performance, % of wages

Northern Plains

General manager Return on equity, annual profit volume, Christmas bonus, profit

Office manager Profit and work done, local returns, return on equity, sales, local net profit

Division manager % of wages, return on equity, net profit, profit and work done, annual profit of cooperative,

sales, local net profit, regional profits performance

Field representative Sales, local net profit, profit center, sales volume, acres applied

Sales representative Profit center, net profit, local net profit, sales

West

General manager Net profit, earnings (local), sales profit, board decision

Office manager Local earnings, net profit

Division manager Net profit, local earnings

Field representative Net profit

Sales representative Net profit

1 Respondents gave salary information for full- and part-time employees but not in all job categories or salary ranges.
16 Table 14—Benefits and how paid, for specified employees, by cooperative type, 1999 1, 2

Health Life Disability Educational

Retirement insurance insurance insurance assistance

Type and ————————— —————————— —————————— —————————— ——————————job category C E S C E S C E S C E S C E S

Percent 

East/South Central

General manager 28 0 72 48 0 52 68 0 32 85 5 10 42 8 50Office manager 26 0 74 52 0 48 71 0 29 83 6 11 54 0 46Division manager 29 0 71 40 0 60 71 0 29 90 10 0 67 0 33Field representative 33 0 67 22 0 78 43 0 57 80 20 0 60 0 40Sales representative 33 0 67 58 0 42 64 0 36 89 11 0 50 0 50

Corn Belt

General manager 52 9 39 51 0 49 69 9 22 83 3 13 64 5 32Office manager 36 9 55 54 0 46 69 11 20 84 3 13 67 8 25Division manager 35 10 55 45 0 55 68 11 21 88 6 6 63 6 31Field representative 31 6 63 56 0 44 82 6 12 93 0 7 86 0 14Sales representative 33 4 63 48 0 52 72 8 20 91 0 9 68 5 26

Lake States

General manager 27 4 69 52 0 48 80 4 16 86 0 14 94 6 0Office manager 27 4 69 50 0 50 80 4 16 86 0 14 94 6 0Division manager 26 4 70 38 0 63 83 0 17 85 0 15 94 6 0Field representative 27 9 64 36 0 64 82 0 18 80 0 20 91 9 0Sales representative 33 7 60 44 0 56 80 7 13 83 0 17 92 8 0

Northern Plains

General manager 24 3 73 53 6 41 63 3 33 78 3 19 55 5 40Office manager 24 3 73 47 9 44 32 11 58 78 3 19 57 5 38Division manager 19 0 81 44 4 52 48 9 43 76 4 20 56 6 39Field representative 20 0 80 50 0 50 53 5 42 75 5 20 56 6 38Sales representative 27 0 73 45 5 50 57 10 33 77 5 18 65 6 29

West

General manager 34 9 56 50 0 50 71 14 14 93 0 7 45 15 40Office manager 34 9 56 48 3 48 72 14 14 93 0 7 48 14 38Division manager 27 14 59 50 4 46 67 14 19 95 5 0 40 20 40Field representative 22 0 78 32 0 68 76 6 18 88 6 6 46 23 31Sales representative 32 5 63 35 0 65 58 16 26 89 6 6 43 14 43

1 Total may not add due to rounding.2 C = cooperative pays only; E = employee pays only, and S = cooperative and employee pays.
Northern Plains, $600/year, $35/meeting plus 25 cents

per mile, paid expenses to convention, travel and

meals, monthly fee, educational training, $50/half day

meeting, $100/all-day meeting, and $350/year; and

West, $100/meeting, 32 cents/mile, registration,

accommodations, per diem, $14/board meeting,

$1500/year, travel expences, dinner, mileage, classes,

and $40/meeting plus mileage.

Cooperative Sizes

Many of the previously reported employment

factors for the 174 respondents cooperatives can be

grouped and compared by sales range categories. Of

the 174 cooperative respondents, 115 gave sales information. Of these, 16 cooperatives were in the smallest

sales range, up to $5 million; 41 cooperatives were in

the largest range, over $5 million to $10 million; 33

cooperatives were in the over $10 million to $20 million sales range; and 25 cooperatives were in the over

17

Table 15—Other benefits for specified employees, by region, 1999

Type and job Paid Paid First-class Paid Cooperative

category vacation/holiday sick days travel training car Mileage

Percent

East/South Central

General manager 25 23 4 16 16 16

Office manager 28 26 2 19 6 18

Division manager 23 23 3 18 20 12

Field representative 26 23 0 26 17 9

Sales representative 29 26 3 21 11 11

Corn Belt

General manager 26 21 1 19 13 20

Office manager 22 25 2 24 5 21

Division manager 23 23 2 23 10 17

Field representative 23 23 1 23 9 20

Sales representative 26 22 1 23 9 20

Lake States

General manager 23 21 3 20 15 19

Office manager 27 25 0 23 5 21

Division manager 25 23 2 24 8 19

Field representative 25 20 0 25 16 14

Sales representative 25 22 0 21 13 19

Northern Plains

General manager 23 23 2 20 12 20

Office manager 27 27 2 27 6 12

Division manager 24 24 2 23 6 22

Field representative 22 23 2 22 10 20

Sales representative 24 24 1 22 11 18

West

General manager 24 22 4 19 16 14

Office manager 28 25 2 21 6 18

Division manager 25 23 2 21 14 15

Field representative 23 23 1 20 21 12

Sales representative 25 25 4 22 11 14
$20 million sales range. Differences in the size of cooperatives, as measured by sales, affect employment factors.

Education

Cooperatives were grouped in four sales ranges

to compare differences in employees’ education levels.

In most cases, cooperatives with larger sales have

employees with higher educational levels. The sales

groups were small, up to $5 million in sales; medium,

over $5 million to $10 million; large, over $10 million

to $20 million, and finally, super, over $20 million in

sales. Actual sales ranged from $524,895 to $800 million.

Cooperatives with sales volume in the lowest

range, up to $5 million, had the largest percentage of

sales representatives, office managers, and division

managers whose formal education was at the high

school level (table 16). Fifty-five percent of general

managers and 57 percent of the field representatives in

the lowest sales range had bachelor’s, associate’s, or

higher degrees.

The division manager and sales representative in

the next cooperative sales size (medium) completed

high school. The general manager (40 percent), office

manager (37 percent), and field representatives (50

percent) held college degrees.

In the large grouping, most employees had college degrees, except the division manager.

Surprisingly, 48 percent of division managers had master’s degrees. Sixty-five percent of general managers,

36 percent of office managers, 40 percent of field representatives, and 43 percent sales representatives in this

category were college educated.

In the over $20 million sales range, more than

half of the employees in all job categories had bachelor’s/associate’s degrees. No respondents had a doctoral degree.

Salary and Ranking

Actual salaries were higher on average for cooperatives with higher sales ranges. But for medium and

large size grouping and for office, division managers,

field and sales representatives the role is switched

(table 17). The only employee categories, general and

division managers, following the "as sales grew

salaries grew" pattern were in the average and median

group. There are a few exceptions between the lowest

and the next highest range with regard to average

salaries but less so with regard to median salaries.

The ordering factors–job responsibilities, decisionmaking capabilities, performance, experience, education, and other agribusiness firms in the area–were

important in setting salaries by sales range. Some of

the factors received the same rank. Two or more factors were often given the same rank. While sales representatives in the up-to-$5-million sales range had a

majority of respondents ranking job responsibility and

decisionmaking capabilities as 1, experience for general and divisions managers also was ranked as 1. Again,

more explanation in the survey’s instructions may

have been needed because many respondents used the

1 to 5 as a measure of importance for each factor separately, rather than indicating each factor’s order of

importance. Also, some factors were assigned no rank,

presumably because respondents considered these as

having no impact on salary determination.

The general manager in all size groupings had

higher ranks in all six factors except large and super

categories. For office, division managers, and field and

sales representatives, there were no significant patterns except that responsibility was the most important

factor in setting factors through all four size groupings.

Bonuses and Their Basis

Thirty-five percent of respondents with sales in

the super category (over $20 million) reported the

largest percentages of bonuses. Thus, respondents in

small cooperatives (sales up to $5 million) had the lowest percentage giving bonuses to employees. It was

more likely that most employees were given bonuses.

In most instances and at all sales level, more

respondents reported financial performance as the

basis for bonuses for employees in all job categories.

Some job categories had the basis for their bonuses

unique to their job duties. For example, some field representatives were given bonuses based on acres

applied, growth, volume, and sales. General manager’s bonuses were based on board decision, return on

equity, as well as annual profit and volume. Division

managers also were given bonuses based on return on

equity, work done, regional profits and performance.

Other reasons bonuses were given to all employees

included: degree to which the cooperative obtained

goals and objectives, how the cooperative performed

compared to other agribusinesses in the area, return on

equity, and bonus performance as related to "management by objectives." Table 18 reports the size of cooperatives and respective basis for bonuses given.

Benefits and Other Perks

More respondents in all sales ranges paid for life

and disability insurance and educational assistance.

18
Health insurance in all but the super-sized group was

paid by the cooperative. Retirement was shared by all

five job categories and sizes (table 19). Educational

benefits were paid for cooperatives also.

Most respondents indicated that other

benefits–paid vacations and sick days, mileage of private car, first-class travel, and paid training--were

offered to employees by cooperatives in every sales

range. First-class travel and use of company car were

the least of other "perks" offered across all employee

categories.

Director Compensation

Small-sized cooperatives had 29 responses, medium-sized had 34 responses, large-sized had 17 percent,

and 40 responses were from super-sized cooperatives

that compensated their directors. Responses varied

throughout size groupings. Small-sized cooperatives’

payments to directors ranged from $25 to $100 per

meeting; paid dinner, per diem, travel, and mileage

reimbursement of 32 cents per mile. Payments made to

directors by medium-sized cooperatives for attending

meetings ranged from $15 to $100 per meeting; travel;

dinner; classes; reimbursement for mileage from 31 to

19

Table 16—Educational levels by cooperative size, 1999 1

Job category and

education Small Medium Large Super

Percent

General manager

High school 23 21 13 8

Some college 23 37 22 20

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 47 40 65 60

Masters 8 2 0 11

Office manager

High school 36 31 19 15

Some college 30 29 36 15

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 33 37 36 57

Masters 1 3 10 13

Division manager

High school 71 59 10 20

Some college 6 15 25 20

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 24 26 17 54

Masters 0 0 48 6

Field representative

High school 43 24 30 27

Some college 0 26 23 19

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 57 50 40 53

Masters 0 0 7 0

Sales representative

High school 58 50 29 20

Some college 19 11 29 19

College graduate

Bachelor/Associate 22 35 43 55

Masters 0 4 0 5

1 No employees had a doctoral degree.
33 cents; retainer fee of $250; per diem; $360 per year;

and $200 per day. Compensation for large-sized cooperatives were similar, with payment for attendance at

meetings ranging from $15 to $50; travel; mileage; and

30 cents reimbursement for mileage. Super-sized cooperatives’ compensation for directors included health

insurance, meeting fee from $20 to $100; travel; per

diem; and mileage reimbursements from 28 cents per

mile.

Changes

Several substantial changes took place over the

past 5 years. As usual, there were increases in salaries

through cost-of-living increases. Generally survey

results indicated that "other firms in the area" had little

to do with influencing cooperatives in setting salaries,

although in some instances changes in some benefits

were made so that cooperatives would remained competitive. Freezes were placed on wages. There were

changes in the contribution of health premiums,

adding prescription cards, decreasing health insurance

coverage, and eliminating dependent coverage.

Retirement contributions were either increased or

decreased and in some cases terminated.

Some cooperatives added new benefits such as

401K plans. Some cooperatives changed the way they

determined pay packages, job classification pay ranges

through salary surveys; performance appraisals; and

merit pay. Other benefits that were added were cafeteria benefit packages, personal sick leave days, a week

of paid vacation per year, health insurance, a dental

plan, disability insurance, and a bonus plan (table 20).

20

Table 17—Salaries for specified employees and cooperative size, 1999 1

Cooperative Type and

Salary

Responses below/

Job Category Low High Median Average above average

————————————————Dollars———————————————— Number

Small

General manager 18,000 68,000 40,000 40,310 23/18

Office manager 8,750 51,000 24,000 25,285 21/17

Division manager 25,000 45,000 32,000 33,615 7/6

Field representative 22,000 45,000 46,000 32,625 5/8

Sales representative 10,750 30,000 22,000 21,660 7/11

Medium

General manager 27,000 180,000 55,000 56,772 26/17

Office manager 18,500 120,000 35,000 34,421 22/12

Division manager 25,000 75,000 35,000 39,224 16/13

Field representative 17,500 51,512 35,000 35,800 10/8

Sales representative 18,000 60,000 46,250 31,836 13/13

Large

General manager 45,000 100,000 60,000 63,573 15/8 

Office manager 22,000 78,000 31,500 34,345 13/10

Division manager 30,000 58,000 36,644 39,797 12/7

Field representative 20,000 45,000 31,000 32,133 9/6

Sales representative 27,000 50,000 30,000 33,286 10/6

Super

General manager 40,000 600,000 105,000 134,589 29/15

Office manager 20,000 164,496 51,000 60,875 29/19

Division manager 25,000 135,000 42,500 61,083 23/16

Field representative 30,000 100,000 40,000 45,237 23/9

Sales representative 29,500 135,000 59,250 53,156 23/14

1 Respondents gave salary information for full- and part-time employees, but not for all job categories or salary ranges.
Comparing 1993 and 1999 Surveys

The original 55 participants in the study and

those in the new study had both subtle and not so subtle changes. These changes could be attributed to a

number of factors including that the person who filled

out the 1993 survey was different from the person who

filled out the survey in 1999. The product mix of cooperatives responding to the survey in both years have

also changed in a small number of cooperatives–nine

grain cooperatives added some farm supplies, two in

farm supplies started marketing grain, and one fruit

and vegetable cooperative expanded from only marketing fruit to their product mix.

In most cases, salaries increased over the 7-year

period, although some decreased or remained the

same. For example, salaries of three respondents (a

general manager, a division manager, and a sales representative) remained the same and those seven others

(three general managers, three office managers, and

one division manager) decreased. The most logical reason is that there are new employees in these positions.

Table 21 shows the difference factors of salaries

between the two survey years. The number of respondents giving bonuses to designated employees was

about the same.

How benefits were financed for the specified

employees between the 2 years is shown in table 22.

Benefits such as retirement, health, disability, life

insurance, and education were paid for either by the

cooperative, or the employee, or were shared by both.

In the 1999 survey, sales representatives had increases

throughout all methods of payment except for disability insurance.

The method of paying for benefits also changed.

In 1993, retirement (20) and health insurance (23) benefits were paid primarily by the cooperative. In 1999,

those benefits, in some instances, were paid for by

both the cooperative and employees. Another example

was the reversal--some benefits originally paid for by

employees were now paid for the cooperative or

shared by both.

Finally, other perks which included paid holidays, sick leave, use of cooperative car, first- class travel, and mileage (private car) were compared for the

1993/1999 period. In most job categories, respondents/cooperatives offered few changes in "perks."

Use of "perks" such as paid sick days, use of cooperative car, and first-class travel declined. Paid vacations/holidays, paid sick days, first-class travel, and

mileage also declined in 1999 for division managers.

Summary

In today’s economy, many companies are downsizing their labor force, creating a more desperate need

21

Table 18–—Bonus and basis, by cooperative size, 1999

Size Responses

Small Profit, performance, gross sales, percentage of catch, sales, net profit, acres applied,

profitability, nonmember activities, local net savings, annual profit volume, merit.

Large Local profit, profitability, accounts received, profit, net of department, end of year financial

statement, sales, growth, local net, annual profit, local earnings, net profit, cooperative

profits, performance.

Medium Profit, pre-tax profit, cooperative annual income, sales, overall profitability, sales unit and

profitability, work done and profit, percent of local net, profit and volume, percent of local

earnings.

Super Bonus performance tied to management by objective, profit, sales, profitability and

performance, profit center, return on equity, how cooperative performs compared to industry

averages, obtain goals and objectives, sales volume, gross sales, local returns, regional

profits, discretionary, performance, cooperative and individual performance, board decisions,

net margins, longevity, local net, earnings, volume sales, increase sales, fertilizer tonnage,

fuels/gallons.
22 Table 19—Benefits and how paid, for specified employees, by cooperative type, 1999 1, 2

Health Life Disability Educational

Retirement insurance insurance insurance assistance

Type and ————————— —————————— —————————— —————————— ——————————job category C E S C E S C E S C E S C E S

Percent 

Small

General manager 31 9 59 75 3 22 73 15 12 89 0 11 46 23 31Office manager 26 12 62 68 8 24 68 19 13 90 3 7 47 24 29Division manager 14 14 71 73 7 20 69 23 8 92 8 0 60 20 20Field representative 20 0 80 60 0 40 75 25 0 100 0 0 67 33 0Sales representative 33 13 53 86 7 7 69 23 8 100 0 0 33 33 33

Medium

General manager 21 5 74 53 0 47 75 10 15 92 0 8 69 4 27Office manager 20 5 75 56 0 44 77 10 13 94 0 6 73 0 27Division manager 20 7 73 37 0 63 72 10 17 88 4 8 68 5 26Field representative 19 0 81 43 0 57 76 5 19 83 6 11 69 6 25Sales representative 19 4 77 54 0 46 67 15 19 87 4 9 67 6 28

Large

General manager 40 0 60 56 4 40 73 0 27 76 5 19 56 6 38Office manager 42 0 58 54 4 42 71 0 29 80 0 20 65 6 29Division manager 35 0 65 55 5 40 71 0 29 88 0 13 60 7 33Field representative 29 0 71 50 0 50 67 0 33 83 0 17 73 9 18Sales representative 40 0 60 59 0 41 50 0 50 50 0 50 56 11 33

Super

General manager 33 4 63 31 0 69 63 2 35 80 4 15 63 6 31Office manager 33 4 63 31 0 69 62 2 36 80 4 16 65 6 29Division manager 32 5 63 31 0 69 61 2 37 81 5 14 67 7 27Field representative 27 6 67 24 0 76 25 6 69 25 25 50 17 17 67Sales representative 32 5 62 28 0 72 65 3 32 81 6 14 70 3 27

1 Total may not add due to rounding.2 C = cooperative pays only; E = employee pays only, and S = cooperative and employee pays.
23

Table 20—Changes made to benefits within past 5 years

Change Frequency

Number of responses 100

Changes 

1. Increase in salaries/cost of living increases/increased salaries to have competitive

wages in area; a freeze placed on salaries/wages 45

2. More toward bonus; percentage of bonuses based on local profit bonuses have increased;

stop paying bonuses 3

3. Vacation days increased (based on service); vacation schedule increased (added a week of 

vacation when merged with neighboring cooperative) 3

4. Cooperative increased its contribution to health insurance; health insurance paid for employee

only (children and spouse); employees pay higher percentage of health insurance (from 25 to 35 

percent); company pays full medical insurance; decreased health insurance coverage; 

health insurance cost increasing; added better health insurance plan with prescription card; 

company pays smaller percentage of health insurance; better health insurance including 

dental; company pays insurance; company pays 100 percent health, life, and disability insurance 19 

5. Improved 401K and conventional retirement; changed from a fixed pension to SIMPLE IRA 

because of high administrative cost; more salary went to 3 percent matching 401K instead of 

sharing costs according to salary; added the 4 percent match to 401K plan; 401K increased 

from 2 to 4 percent; defined benefit plan paid by company; 401K contribution increased from 

2 to 3 percent; 2 percent 401K match; cooperative changed from retirement paid by 

cooperative to 401K plan; retirement premiums have been frozen until company returns

to profitability; change from retirement plan to profit-sharing plan; pension plan now paid

for by cooperative (was life insurance type); 401K plan and terminated the defined benefit plan 14

6. Benefit costs are skyrocketing with low unemployment 1

Added

1. 401K plan; pension program; simple plan adopted; 401K plan will be implemented to replace 

the after -ax voluntary contribution option–employer will match the deferral at 20 up 13

2. Flexible benefits package; COL benefits clause; use of salary surveys to determine 

pay packages, job classifications and pay ranges, more performance-based pay profit-sharing; 

pay 1/2 day sick leave; life insurance policy which is paid by the cooperative; a progressive 

phasing from entitlement driven systems (i.e., length of service) to performance-based 

incentives; cafeteria plan added; addition of health and life insurance benefit package; 

performance appraisals and merit pay and disability insurance; dental insurance, disability 

insurance, and cafeteria plan; health insurance and one week paid vacation per year; 

personal sick leave days, sick leave enhanced; bonus plan 16
to keep productive employees. In order to retain better

employees, cooperatives try to keep pace with other

businesses’ salaries and benefit packages.

Other factors may be the result of external influences, Federal and State Government policies and regulations, competitive background and geographical

locations, or internal factors such as the educational

background, skill, physical ability (required by job),

and experience of the employee.

Job evaluation is one of the tools available for

developing equitable pay structures. Job evaluations

may be developed through several methods–ranking,

classification, factor comparison, and points. Each of

these methods has advantages and disadvantages.

Benefit plans must also be evaluated. Benefit

planners should consider employee needs and expectations, cost escalation, tax considerations, benefit

quality, and actions of competitors. There are other

questions that the cooperative must answer. What benefits should be offered and how will they be paid?

What conditions must be met before an employee is

eligible for benefits? These questions can be answered

through interviews of employees, monitoring benefit

activities of other businesses in the area, Government

agencies, and reading various benefit publications.

Some of the benefit costs once paid solely by the

cooperative are now being shared by both cooperative

and employee. In some cases, the reversal was true.

Some respondents indicated that benefits once paid for

solely by the employee were now being shared or paid

for by the cooperative.

"Perks" were offered to most employees in all job

categories– paid vacations, holiday and sick days, use

of company car, and mileage reimbursement (private

car). First-class travel was not widely offered to

employees, although if it was offered, the general manager was the beneficiary.

Many employees had a college degree.

Cooperative sales further defined the educational

background of selected employees. In the largest sales

level, more than $20 million, employees tended to

have completed higher levels of education.

Performance and job responsibilities were the

most important salary-setting elements. Throughout

all job categories, education and the existence of other

firms in the area generally were the least important

factors in setting salaries. The methods for evaluating

performance varied. Thirty-four percent of the respondents reported that bonuses were given to all employees based on financial performance factors such as

margins, net earnings, income, or savings.

There were minor regional differences in benefits,

ranking factors for setting salaries, "perks," and educational levels of cooperatives. Salary was highest in the

East/South Central region in all job categories, except

for sales representatives in the West. Most bonuses

were based on financial performance factors in all

regions and job categories.

Cooperatives were more likely to pay for life and

disability insurance and educational assistance for the

general and office managers. Retirement plans were

usually shared by both the cooperative and the

employee.

Cooperative leaders must look at internal and

external influences when setting salaries and benefits

and use all available resources such as job evaluations,

Government agencies, other firms in the area, and

employee interviews in developing an equitable salary

structure and maintaining a balance between needs of

the employee and needs of the cooperative.

24

Table 21—Comparable salaries by employee category, 1992 and 1999

Job

Salary range 1

Responses below/

Category Low High Median Average above average

———————— ————————— ———————— ———————— —————————

1992 1999 1992 1999 1992 1999 1992 1999 1992 1999

————————————————Dollars———————————————— Number

General Manager 13,200 18,000 195,252 300,000 43,260 60,000 55,711 87,187 38/13 28/14

Office Manager 16,000 17,000 114,024 164,496 28,000 35,000 34,236 45,003 31/16 30/10

Division Manager 3,200 25,000 91,520 100,000 31,000 45,000 38,553 50,516 24/14 14/7

Field Representative 16,000 25,000 50,000 65,000 25,000 35,000 28,813 38,897 14/12 9/9

Sales Representative 15,000 18,000 108,120 135,000 23,000 30,000 30,683 39,202 17/4 15/6

1 Respondents gave salary information for full- and part-time employees, but not all jobs or salary ranges.
25

Table 22—Benefits and how paid, for specified employees, by cooperative size, 1999 1, 2

Health Life Disability Educational

Retirement insurance insurance insurance assistance

Type and ————————— —————————— —————————— —————————— ——————————job category C E S C E S C E S C E S C E S

Percent 

1992

General manager 30 0 28 27 67 20 28 30 29 27 26 30 27 33 25Office manager 25 50 26 26 17 28 25 22 29 27 21 30 25 33 25Division manager 22 0 19 20 0 21 23 13 23 24 16 20 21 0 21Field representative 12 50 16 16 17 13 14 17 11 15 21 10 13 33 14Sales representative 12 0 11 11 0 9 10 17 9 7 16 10 13 0 14

1999

General manager 25 27 26 26 50 25 25 25 26 25 20 42 23 33 27Office manager 25 27 25 25 50 25 25 25 24 24 20 33 24 22 27Division manager 20 20 18 18 0 19 19 13 17 20 20 8 20 11 15Field representative 13 13 15 14 0 14 15 13 15 15 20 8 17 22 9Sales representative 17 13 16 18 0 16 16 25 17 16 20 8 18 11 21

1 Total may not add due to rounding.2 C = cooperative pays only; E = employee pays only, and S = cooperative and employee pays.
Cooperative leaders must look at today’s society with

an eye toward try keeping pace with other businesses’

salaries and benefit packages and to avoiding employee turnover, and they must be ready to adapt their

salaries and benefits in order to remain competitive.

APPENDIX

Definitions

Cafeteria Plan—Is the official term used in Section

125 of the Internal Revenue Service Code which

describes a flexible benefits program between taxable

and nontaxable benefits that the Federal Government

recognizes. It is an individual combination of benefits

to each employee, rather than a standard program that

covers all employees the same way.

Perquisites ("perks")—Additional benefits

designed not only to increase size of a compensation

package, but also to compensate for the stresses and

strains of employment. These benefits are paid by the

organization.

Section 40lK (cash or deferred)—The Internal

Revenue Service Code permits employees to choose

between currently taxable cash compensation and not

currently taxable contributions to certain qualified

plans. Therefore, an employee can elect whether his or

her employer will make contributions on the employee’s behalf to a qualified profit-sharing plan (including

a thrift plan), a qualified stock bonus plan, the preEmployment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)

money purchase pension plan; or if the employer will

pay the amount to the employees as cash compensation.

26
27

OMB Number————————————

Approval Expires——————————

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Rural Business-Cooperative Service

Washington, D.C. 20250-3253

DEFINITIONS OF JOB CATEGORIES

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER/ PRESIDENT/GENERAL MANAGER — The decision making elements of the cooperative --role is to formulate, execute policies, and to obtain cooperative’s objective.

ACCOUNTANT/CONTROLLER/BOOKKEEPER/OFFICE MANAGER — Role is to keep timely and accurate

records of cooperative’s financial standing.

DIVISION MANAGER — Carries out and supports policies and objectives of the cooperative and the Chief Executive

Officer/President/General Manager.

FIELD REPRESENTATIVE — Uses expertise on how best to cultivate land through soil testing and other tools, and recommends appropriate products and innovate technical trends to improve farm operations.

SALES REPRESENTATIVE — Keeps abreast of new product on market. Meets with farmers to take orders and inform

farmers of new products. Some sales representatives also make deliveries.

Chief Accountant/

Executive Controller/ Field 

Question Officer/Presi- Bookeeper/ Representa- Sales 

dent/ General Office Division tive/Consul- RepresenManager Manager Manager tant tative

1. How was employee found and ultimately hired?

(i.e., through media, advertisement, reference, 

word-of-mouth)

2. How many employees to you employ?

Full-time?

Part-time?

3. What is educational background? Use the 

following codes for High School/GED = 

HS; Some college (no Degree) =SC; College = 

BS (2 or 4 years); Master = MS; Doctoral =PhD.

4. If specific salary information is confidential or if 

there is more than one employee in job category, 

please use high or low salary or an average of 

both. Example General Manager $15,000 (low) or 

$25,000 (high)

What is present annual salary for each job 

category?

ACCORDING TO THE PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT OF 1995, NO PERSONS ARE REQUIRED TO RESPOND TO A COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

UNLESS IT DISPLAYS A VALID OMB CONTROL NUMBER. THE VALID OMB CONTROL NUMBER FOR THIS INFORMATION COLLECTION IS 0575-0000.

THE TIME REQUIRED TO COMPLETE THIS INFORMATION COLLECTION IS ESTIMATED TO AVERAGE 10 MINUTES PER RESPONSE, INCLUDING THE

TIME FOR REVIEWING INSTRU CTIONS, SEARCHING EXISTING DATA SOURCES, GATHERING AND MAINTAINING THE DATA NEEDED, AND COMPLETING AND REVIEWING THE COLLECTION OF INFORMATION.
28

Chief Accountant/

Executive Controller/ Field 

Question Officer/Presi- Bookeeper/ Representa- Sales 

dent/ General Office Division tive/Consul- RepresenManager Manager Manager tant tative

5. How is salary derived? Circle -- Rate in order of 

importance 1 to 5, with 1 being the most 

important, 5 being the least important.

Job responsibilities 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Decision making capabilities 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Performance (see question 15) 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Experience 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Education 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Other agribusiness firms in area 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Other _________________________________ 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

6. Does your cooperative pays bonuses/commission?

If yes, what are bonuses and commissions 

based on? (If no, go to question 7)

7. How are the following benefits/perks paid? 

Enter c = cooperative; e = employee pays; s = 

shared by both. If no paid beneifts, please leave 

blank.

Retirement 1 ————— ————— ————— ————— —————

Health insurance ————— ————— ————— ————— —————

Life insurance ————— ————— ————— ————— —————

Disability insurance (workmen’s 

compensation) ————— ————— ————— ————— —————

Educational assistance ————— ————— ————— ————— —————

8. Are the following benefits/perks offered? 

Circle Y for yes or N for No

Paid vacations/holidays Y N Y N Y N Y N Y N

Paid sick leave Y N Y N Y N Y N Y N

Use of cooperative car/truck Y N Y N Y N Y N Y N

First class travel (air) Y N Y N Y N Y N Y N

Paid training Y N Y N Y N Y N Y N

Mileage (private car) Y N Y N Y N Y N Y N

Other _________________________________ Y N Y N Y N Y N Y N

9. Do you offer some compensation to your board 

directors, i.e., paid travel, dinners, other, etc.,?

If yes, please give specific examples (as travel, 

dinner, etc.). Also, give an estimate of the annual 

amount. If no, go to question 10

1 If your organization has any written policies on pension/retirement plans/formulas used, bonuses/commission, or 

related compensation/benefit packages you may wish to send a copy of policies.
29

10. If retirement/pension contribution is shared by employees and cooperative, i.e., 401K, what is formula for contribution?

Example: cooperative matches employees’ contribution or cooperative pays 75 percent into retirement/pension plans,

cooperative pays percentage according to salary, years of service, etc., or social security payment.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

11. What changes, if any, have occurred in your organization’s salary and benefit packages in the last 5 years? Please give a

brief description.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

12. What is product(s) sold or marketed? —————————————————————————————————————

13. What were your total sales for 1998? —————————————

14. What were total employees expenses (salary, benefits, etc.) for 1998? —————————————

15. If performance is a factor in question 5, how is it evaluated or measured, i.e., sales, return on sales, profit, etc., by the

board of directors and how does the CEO, in turn, evaluate performance of key staff members?

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

Contact Person: —————————————————————— ———————————————— Name and Title Phone Number
U.S. Department of Agriculture

Rural Business–Cooperative Service

Stop 3250

Washington, D.C. 20250-3250

Rural Business–Cooperative Service (RBS) provides research,

management, and educational assistance to cooperatives to

strengthen the economic position of farmers and other rural

residents. It works directly with cooperative leaders and

Federal and State agencies to improve organization,

leadership, and operation of cooperatives and to give guidance

to further development.

The cooperative segment of RBS (1) helps farmers and other

rural residents develop cooperatives to obtain supplies and

services at lower cost and to get better prices for products they

sell; (2) advises rural residents on developing existing

resources through cooperative action to enhance rural living;

(3) helps cooperatives improve services and operating

efficiency; (4) informs members, directors, employees, and the

public on how cooperatives work and benefit their members

and their communities; and (5) encourages international

cooperative programs. RBS also publishes research and

educational materials and issues Rural Cooperatives magazine.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits

discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of

race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability,

political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family

status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.)

Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for

communication of program information (braille, large print,

audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at

(202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD).

To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director,

Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and

Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or

call (202) 720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal

opportunity provider and employer.