Both the Wisconsin farm workers’ wages and hours have gone up from 2021. And Wisconsin farmers are paying more than the national average for labor. That’s the summary from the latest farm labor report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
There were 63,000 workers hired directly by farms in the Lake Region — Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin — during the reference week of July 10-16. Farm operators paid their hired workers an average wage rate of $18.49 per hour. That’s $2.47 above July 2021. The number of hours worked averaged 41.3 for hired workers during the reference week, compared with 40.4 hours in July 2021.
During the reference week of Oct. 9-15, there were 69,000 workers hired directly by farms in the Lake Region. Farm operators paid their hired workers an average wage rate of $18.83 per hour during the October reference week. That’s $2.26 above October 2021. The number of hours worked averaged 42.9 for hired workers during the reference week, compared with 41.3 hours in October 2021.
Looking at the U.S. as a whole, farm operators hired 785,000 workers during the October reference week. That’s up 2 percent from October 2021. In the July reference week, operators hired 797,000 farm workers, unchanged from the same time last year.
Farm operators paid their hired workers an average gross wage of $17.72 per hour during the October 2022 reference week. That’s up 7 percent from the October 2021 reference week. Field workers got an average of $17.04 per hour, up 6 percent. Livestock workers earned $16.52 per hour, up 7 percent. The field and livestock worker combined gross wage rate, at $16.90 per hour, was up 6 percent from the 2021 reference week.
Hired laborers worked an average of 41.8 hours during the October 2022 reference week, down slightly from the hours worked during the October 2021 reference week.
During the July 2022 reference week, farm operators paid their hired workers an average gross wage of $17.63 per hour, up 6 percent from the same time last July. Field workers received an average of $16.80 per hour, up 4 percent, while livestock workers earned $16.65 per hour, up 10 percent from a year earlier. The field and livestock worker combined gross wage rate, at $16.76 per hour, was up 6 percent from the July 2021 reference week.
Hired laborers worked an average of 41.1 hours during the July 2022 reference week, up slightly from the
hours worked during the July 2021 reference week.
The 2022 all hired worker annual average gross wage rate was $17.56 per hour, up 7 percent from the 2021 annual average gross wage rate. The 2022 field worker annual average gross wage rate was $16.77 per hour, up 6 percent from the 2021 annual average. The 2022 livestock worker annual average gross wage rate was $16.29 per hour. The 2022 annual average combined gross wage for field and livestock workers was $16.62, up 7 percent from the 2021 annual average of $15.56 per hour.
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