Where do Alberta farm workers work?

I’m currently co-editing a collection of essays about agricultural employment in western Canada. A chapter I’ve contributed looks at paid farm work in Alberta. The 2011 Agricultural Census identified 37,852 paid farm workers (15,598 year-round and 22,254 part-year) in Alberta who worked 898,452 weeks (73% by year-round workers). Paid farm workers do not include farm operators (i.e., owners or co-owners) or unpaid workers (e.g., family members, unless paid).

Alberta excludes farm workers from most statutory employment rights (e.g., child labour laws, health and safety laws, WCB, collective bargaining) and this is usually justified as necessary to protect the so-called family farm. No Conservative politician ever defines the family farm but usually this language hints at Little House on the Prairie, ma-and-pa operations. As it turns out, virtually all Alberta farms are family owned. But examining where paid farm work occurs is insightful.

Between 1991 and 2011, the number of farms reporting paid farm workers decreased from 22,482 to 12,798, although the number of weeks of employment reported per farm climbed from 34.9 to 70.2 (Alberta 2013a).  This suggests a concentration of paid agricultural work on a subset of farms over time. Data limitations preclude a chronological analysis but examining paid employment by farm size reveals that, as farm size increases, so too does the chance the farm will have employees, the number of employers and the likelihood of having year-round employees.

Table 1. Paid employment on Alberta farms by size, 2011

Acres	% farms	% with paid workers	% of year-round wkrs	% of seasonal/ temp wkrs	% of weeks paid work	% of weeks year-round work	% of weeks seasonal/ temp work	Paid workers per farm
≤599	56.7	17.0	28.6	37.0	28.8	26.6	34.8	0.51
560-1119	16.8	32.7	12.8	9.6	11.7	12.2	11.2	0.71
1120-1599	7.7	42.0	7.4	9.4	6.9	6.8	7.1	0.97
1600-2239	6.2	49.7	8.0	8.8	7.7	7.6	7.8	1.19
2240-2879	3.6	58.0	6.8	7.1	7.2	6.9	8.0	1.68
≥2880	8.9	67.2	36.5	23.6	37.6	39.9	31.1	2.84

Farms of 1120 or more acres (almost two square miles) comprised 26.4% of all farms. These farms employed 52.9% of all paid workers and were responsible for 59.4% of weeks of paid work. The largest category of farms (≥2880 acres) comprised only 8.9% of all farms but employed 28.9% of paid workers and was responsible for 37.6% of weeks of paid work.

A similar pattern is evident when examining paid employment by farm gross receipts. As set out in Table 2, as farm gross receipts increase, so too do the chance the farm will have employees, the number of employers and the likelihood of having year-round employees.

Table 2. Paid employment on Alberta farms by gross receipts, 2011 (Canada 2013).

$000s	% farms	% with paid workers	% of year-round wkrs	% of seasonal/ temp wkrs	% of weeks paid work	% of weeks year-round work	% of weeks seasonal/ temp work	Paid workers per farm
≤49	50.0	10.6	5.8	12.8	3.8	2.8	5.6	0.08
50-99	13.7	25.6	4.9	8.9	4.0	3.8	4.7	0.46
100-249	16.2	42.4	12.5	17.6	11.0	10.8	11.4	0.84
250-499	9.7	59.9	14.5	17.9	14.0	13.9	14.4	1.48
500-999	5.8	76.1	17.2	15.3	17.7	17.7	17.8	2.44
1000-1999	2.7	84.9	16.0	11.2	17.3	17.7	16.2	4.25
≥2000	1.8	76.6	29.1	16.2	32.2	33.0	29.9	10.4

Farms with gross annual receipts above $250,000 comprised 20.0% of farms. These farms employed 67.3% of all paid workers and accounted for 81.2% of all weeks of paid work. The largest category of farms (≥$2 million) comprised only 1.8% of farms but employed 21.5% of paid worker and accounted for 33.0% of weeks of paid work. These farms employed an average of 10.4 workers each.

What this analysis suggests is that the consolidation of farms has created a subset of farms—approximately the physically and financially largest quarter of farms—where the majority of waged farm work occurs and the majority of waged farm workers are employed. While the majority of farms employing waged labour are family owned, their sheer size and total revenue suggests that they are a far cry from the traditional homesteads evoked by the term “family farm”. Really, they are large businesses, just like any other.

The fact that regulation of paid agricultural employment would have little effect on small “family farms” raises the question of what dynamic truly underlies Alberta’s reluctance to extend basic employment rights to farm workers. The chapter goes onto suggest that the interplay between a cost-price squeeze and rural electoral politics is part of the explanation. But that argument can wait for the book to be finished—I just thought the data was interesting.

-- Bob Barnetson