Both the Wisconsin farm workers’ wages and hours have gone up from 2022. That’s the summary from the latest farm labor report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
There were 59,000 workers hired directly by farms in the Lake Region — Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin — during the reference week of July 9-15. Farm operators paid their hired workers an average wage rate of $19.64 per hour. That’s $1.15 above July 2022. The number of hours worked averaged 42.8 for hired workers during the reference week, compared with 41.3 hours in July 2022.
During the reference week of October 8-14, there were 64,000 workers hired directly by farms in the Lake Region. Farm operators paid their hired workers an average wage rate of $20.38 per hour during the October 2023 reference week. That’s $1.55 above October 2022. The number of hours worked averaged 42.8 for hired workers during the reference week, compared with 42.9 hours in October 2022.
Looking at the U.S. as a whole, farm operators hired 776,000 workers during the October reference week. That’s down 1 percent from the October 2022. In the July reference week, operators hired 781,000 farm workers, down 2 percent from the same time last year.
Farm operators paid their hired workers an average gross wage of $18.81 per hour during the October 2023 reference week. That’s up 6 percent from the October 2022 reference week. Field workers received an average of $18.24
per hour, up 7 percent. Livestock workers earned $17.19 per hour, up 4 percent. The field and livestock worker combined gross wage rate, at $17.95 per hour, was up 6 percent from the 2022 reference week.
Hired laborers worked an average of 41.7 hours during the October 2023 reference week, down slightly from the hours worked during the October 2022 reference week.
During the July 2023 reference week, farm operators paid their hired workers an average gross wage of $18.61 per hour, up 6 percent from the same time last year. Field workers received an average of $18.08 per hour, up 8 percent, while livestock workers earned $16.95 per hour, up 2 percent from a year earlier. The field and livestock worker combined gross wage rate, at $17.76 per hour, was up 6 percent from the July 2022 reference week.
Hired laborers worked an average of 41.2 hours during the July 2023 reference week, up slightly from the hours worked during the July 2022 reference week.
The 2023 all hired worker annual average gross wage rate was $18.53 per hour, up 6 percent from the 2022 annual average gross wage rate. The 2023 field worker annual average gross wage rate was $17.88 per hour, up 7 percent
from the 2022 annual average. The 2023 livestock worker annual average gross wage rate was $16.85 per hour. The 2023 annual average combined gross wage for field and livestock workers was $17.55, up 6 percent from the 2022 annual average of $16.62 per hour.
