@article{Fogleman:121151,
      recid = {121151},
      author = {Fogleman, Sarah L. and Milligan, Robert A. and Maloney,  Thomas R. and Knoblauch, Wayne A.},
      title = {Employee Compensation and Job Satisfaction on Dairy Farms  in the Northeast},
      address = {1999-08},
      number = {641-2016-43520},
      series = {SP99-01},
      pages = {15},
      year = {1999},
      abstract = {As economies of size become increasingly important in  production agriculture, farm sizes continually increase.  For the farm members of the Northeast Dairy Producers  Association (NEDPA), this results in larger herds, more  acres of crop production, and more full-time, non-owner  employees. The NEDPA membership realizes the important  roles these individuals play in their businesses and are  devoted to the study of successful human resource  management practices. This research quantifies and  illustrates the internal pay structure and enumerates the  current employee satisfaction levels present on these farms  for different subsets of employees.
To enumerate the study,  the NEDPA membership was divided into two groups. The first  group, consisting of farms with herds smaller than 500 cows  and greater than 1500 cows participated in the internal pay  portion of the study where a researcher conducted personal  interviews with the farm owner or manager and gathered  detailed compensation information for each full-time,  non-family employee. A second, more homogeneous group of  farms, those with herd sizes ranging from 500 to 1500 cows,  participated in both the internal pay study described above  and the employee satisfaction study. On these farms, the  owner or manager provided detailed compensation information  about the employees and then the employees themselves were  interviewed to assess their job satisfaction levels. In  those cases where some employees were unavailable, another  employee was asked to administer the survey to their  coworkers and return the completed survey to us. We also  gathered general managerial and production data at both  groups of farms.
Employers classified each employee as one  of five competency levels based on supervisory capacity,  level of decision-making authority, and skill level. These  classifications determined the internal pay structure on  these farms. A natural hierarchy related to tenure and  education is evident as the members of each competency  level become more experienced and educated from one band to  the next. Total compensation values also increase with  higher competencies. Mean compensation values and standard  deviations for each level provide benchmark bands,  indicating ranges of compensation values and illustrating  the total compensation for 65 percent ofthe employees  within each competency level.
ii
The internal pay data is  also used in two regression analyses where total  compensation and annual cash wage are the different  dependent variables. The explanatory variables consist of  farm and employee characteristics. The annual wage model  has a slightly stronger R-squared value and coefficients  that are more consistent with economic theory and a priori  information but both models illustrate several interesting  factors consistent with their respective dependent  variables.
Total Employee Satisfaction was measured through  four core dimensions: autonomy, variety, feedback, and task  identity. While the Total Satisfaction scores were fairly  strong, the most interesting result is that Feedback is the  core dimension in which employees are least satisfied. This  result was supported by correlating the satisfaction  components with variables such as compensation, experience,  and demographic factors. These statistics indicate that  feedback is not associated with wages or other factors but  more likely with the amount and quality of communication an  employee has with the farm owners or managers.
Many  employers utilize some non-traditional compensation  techniques. Qualitative observations showed that employees  enjoy these non-cash benefits but frequently underestimate  their values. This is a problem for producers as they  compete with seemingly higher wages from other area  employers. This concern can be alleviated, again, by good  communication between employers and employees about all  aspects ofthe job, including compensation values.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/121151},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.121151},
}