Tuesday, 26 May 2015 11:06

Match housing costs to market

Written by 

Farmers with employees living on their property should be charging them market rates to combat impressions that dairy workers were underpaid, says DairyNZ people team leader Jane Muir.

The subject of low wages in the dairy industry got media attention last week when Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly tweeted links to job postings on the Farm Source site which she claimed proved gross underpayment of workers.

Kelly tweeted links to job descriptions which she claimed were for jobs paying $12.80-$15.55 per hour. She arrived at this rate by dividing the offered base salary by the average number of working hours – which Muir says does not fairly represent overall market offers.

While farmers may offer workers accommodation, its cost is often calculated at discounted rates which, Muir says, can reflect a poor, unwarranted image of the industry.

While it was common for employers to offer accommodation this was often done so at discounted rates, reducing the overall value of the package. For example, rents in the regions listed in the ads mentioned by Kelly were $240-360 a week – as much as $18,000 a year in some cases.

This is no good for an industry reputedly a poor employer, says Muir. “The dairy industry is struggling for employees and when stories like this hit the media people in towns say ‘there’s no way I’d let my child enter the dairy industry for pay like that’.”

Muir recommends increasing rents, then increasing salaries in line with the rent increase to paint a truer picture of the actual industry. “We calculate that 10% of the operators reported to be paying below the minimum wage through calving would [not be unjustly accused] if they were to [charge] a market rent.”      

More like this

Owl Farm marks 10 years as NZ’s first demonstration dairy farm

In 2015, the signing of a joint venture between St Peter's School, Cambridge, and Lincoln University saw the start of an exciting new chapter for Owl Farm as the first demonstration dairy farm in the North Island. Ten years on, the joint venture is still going strong.

Featured

Farewell Jim

In a few hundred words it's impossible to adequately describe the outstanding contribution that James Brendan Bolger made to New Zealand since he first entered politics in 1972.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Fonterra vote

OPINION: Voting is underway for Fonterra’s divestment proposal, with shareholders deciding whether or not sell its consumer brands business.

Follow the police beat

OPINION: Politicians and Wellington bureaucrats should take a leaf out of the book of Canterbury District Police Commander Superintendent Tony Hill.

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter