Firm Size and Job Rewards in Agriculture: A Mixed-Methods Study of Farm Work

• In Event: 161 - Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 20. Work Characteristics and Outcomes

Abstract

Research on the relationship between firm size and job rewards plays an important role in sociological research on the relationships between organizations and stratification. Yet the factors driving these patterns are not well understood. Additionally, scholars have not yet applied this analysis to the agricultural sector, despite the fact that it is a primary site of employment for millions of low-wage workers in the United States alone. In this paper, we ask: What is the relationship between farm size and job rewards for hired farm workers, and what causes that relationship? Drawing on two mixed-methods case studies, we find that large farms offer many job rewards that small farms do not. We explain that this stems not only from economies of scale and other factors that scholars have noted, but also employers’ and their peers’ classed identities and aspirations, as well as farmers’ and immigrant workers’ fears of immigration enforcement.

Authors

• Jill Lindsey Harrison, University of Colorado-Boulder

• Christina Getz, University of California-Berkeley