News

Average farm worker wage up 4%

The USDA says the average farm worker earned $13.72 per hour during April. That’s a four percent increase compared to the same week last year.

Field workers during April earned an average of $12.72 per hour, up four percent. Livestock workers earned a nickel more, a two percent increase from 2017.  The average work week during April for hired laborers was a little more than 40 hours.

The number of hired workers on farms and ranches totaled 648,000.

Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri and states in the Northeast saw the largest increase in farm workers, up 17 percent.

Farm operators in the Lake Region (which includes Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) hired workers for an average of $13.02 per hour, down $0.33 from last year.