American History

American History

aintain fair standards. Even after a piece rate or other incentive standard is fixed, workers may be hesitant to show farmers their full performance potential. A call from a grower will best illustrate what I mean. He expressed the frustration that his employees were earning too much. "I have been thinking of reducing what I pay per grapevine from 32 cents per vine to 28," he explained. I explained to the grower that the piece rate should not be diminished, that half his crew was apt to leave--the better half--and the other half would never trust him again. "I was just putting you to the test," the grower retorted. "I reduced the piece rate last week, and half the crew already left ..."

Crew members sometimes exert pressure on overly productive coworkers to have them slow down. They fear standards will be increased (i.e., they will have to put in more effort to make the same amount) either now or in future years. A worker described how on a previous job he had been offered $1 per box of apricots picked. When he picked 100 boxes for the day within a few hours the rate was suddenly changed to 50 cents per box. Another worker explained, "If we are making too much on piece rate we are told to also weed, and that reduces our earnings."14

At a large orchard operation, top management was mistakenly focusing on average earnings per hour (by translating piece rate costs into hourly wages). Instead, they needed to focus on cost per acre or cost per job. When piece-rate paid workers made what to top management seemed like overly high wages, their pay rate was reduced with disastrous results: the best employees left, and trust