Workers prefer growers over FLCs Volume 50, Number 6, January-February 1997, pp. Given a choice, crew workers overwhelmingly prefer working for a grower rather than for a farm labor contractor. Despite the potential benefits of piece rate, crew workers were evenly divided between those who favor hourly pay and those who prefer piece-rate pay. Crew worker concern about how piece rates are determined played a key role in the unexpectedly low preference for piece rate. Suggestions are offered for establishing piece rates as pay incentives.
Some farmers resist increasing incentive pay levels when compensating seasonal crew workers.
They have hypothesized that workers have a certain earnings goal for each day and that once this goal is achieved, workers will go home. This study shows that crew workers generally do not have such an earnings goal. When piece-rate paid crew workers do leave work early, it is more likely because they are overly hot or tired or that wages are low. For wages and benefits, bigger dairies may be better , Barbara Reed Volume 48, Number 2, March-April 1994, pp. Wages and benefits offered to dairy employees are highly variable.