Home Menu
Subscriber Login
...Newsletters
.. Labor Resources
.. Labor Requirements
.. Overtime Calculator
.. Safety
.. Wage Survey
Free Resouces
...Supply Catalog
...Labor/Safety Issues
...CA Farm Bureau
...Ag Accent Newsletters
About FELS®
...What is FELS?
...Services
...Meet our Staff
...Contact FELS®
...Map to FELS®
...Legal Notice

FELS Wage & Benefit Survey
Terminology

Explanation of Terms Used in Survey Reports (from 2004, for pervious year's reports click here)

Thanks to Sara Carrasco (California Farm Bureau Federation) for data entry and Gary Casterline (UCB College of Natural Resources) for database management and report programming. Terms used and aspects of data treatment in producing the reports are explained below.

As an aid to reading the survey reports, below is an explanation of the terms used.

Wage Reports:

Each type of job is briefly defined on the survey form to facilitate reporting wage rates relative to similar work, but some of the pay variation within a given job is attributable to differences across firms in the duties for which people with the same title are responsible. Pay for eight job titles could be reported per hour, per month, or both. The tables in this report of findings include columns showing the overall average, the average low and high, and the absolute low and high wages reported for each job by respondents in the subgroup specified at top of the page (by crop for each association, and by crop, region, and size for the overall sample). They also indicate the total number (N) of respondents reporting any wage for each respective job-pay type and the number (n) who pay at a single rate (lowest=highest) for a given job. The standard deviation (sd) is of the midpoint between each respondent’s lowest and highest wage rates for the job. The smaller the standard deviation, the closer that wages paid for the job by all responding firms tend to cluster around their average.

Since 2006 the survey has included questions about hiring FLCs and other contract firms for production services. In each table of wage results, statistics on wage rates for general laborers employed by these contractors are distinguished from those referring to direct employees. Below the wages table are two statistics indicating the extent of FLC use within a class of respondents: (1) the percentage of respondent firms that hire any contractors, and (2) the average share of their total labor expense that they pay for contracted work.

Benefits Section:

The survey form provides check-boxes only for indicating “yes” to the question of whether employees receive each respective benefit. The “% providing” result on these reports is calculated as the number of respondents checking that box divided by the number of all (N) within the crop, region, or size group specified in the report title. Because this method treats all respondents who did not check a given benefit box the same, whether they would have checked a "no" box or would have simply left no entry for the item, it may understate the share of those who actually provide each benefit.

Explanation of Terms Used in Survey Reports (prior to 2004, for 2004 reports click here)

As an aid to reading the survey tabulations, below is an explanation of the column headings:

* JOB TITLES - Each job title was defined so that survey participants could enter wage rates relative to a uniform job definition. See sample survey on next page for job definitions.

* RATE/ - The "Rate/" column indicates the method of pay--either by the hour or a monthly salary.

* AVERAGE - The "Average" column equals the arithmetic mean of the replies.

* LOWEST & HIGHEST - These columns indicate the lowest and the highest values reported.

* STDEV - The standard deviation (STDEV) measures how closed individual wage rate responses are to the "Average". A small "STDEV" means that more reporting farms pay wages closer to the "Average" than when the "STDEV" is larger.

* REPLIES - This indicates the number of responses reported for each job title.

In the benefits section, benefits are reported as a percentage of "Yes" responses to each of the questions by year-round and seasonal employment. The column "Number" indicates the number of "yes" responses or in the case of "Ave. Number Paid Holidays", the average number of holidays.

We hope you find the survey results helpful to you. Any suggestions to improve this service are welcomed.