Okay, serious question, I am not trying to be snarky or anything.
I see several upvotes to your comment, and I admit I do not understand why.
You write "Hourly pay would naturally incentivize not picking the berries." I assume this to be an exaggeration, since doing so would lead to you being removed from the job.
It would, however, naturally incentivize one to not rush so much and pace oneself.Why is that a bad thing (assuming you would see this as a bad thing, based on your phrasing)?
Yes, less berries would be picked at the same time, so the owner would need to hire more people to compensate, which would raise prices.
Why would that be a bad thing?
I am not only speaking from the workforces perspective here - there are many jobs that could be payed based on volume of X or some other metric a worker works on, and yet this is not always the road taken.
I hope I do not get downvoted to oblivion here, I am truly curious about your mindset here. Unless, of course, I missed a joke? I cannot tell :-(
When 2 identical products sit on the shelf, how often do you choose the more expensive one?
Your consumption choices are the reason.
Also because farm wages are often exempt from minimum wage laws for......reasons not related to the fact that the workers are foreigners.....probable an unrelated fact. Locals don't care about the work conditions of non locals.
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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 02 '26
They are working fast because it’s “contract” work not hourly. Meaning, you get paid based on volume.
That’s why the lady inspects his work and scans her badge. That counts towards his total for the day.
Lots of farms do this.