Inexperienced farm worker wage

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
Just had a further look into it and it says 'Apprentices who are under 19, or who are 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship, will be paid a minimum of £4.15 per hour'. So I'd still be paid £4.15 an hour for the first year (unless the employer wanted to offer more)

Could you go milking cows for one of the big dairy units? They always seem to be looking, they might even pay a bit more than minimum wage.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
Just had a further look into it and it says 'Apprentices who are under 19, or who are 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship, will be paid a minimum of £4.15 per hour'. So I'd still be paid £4.15 an hour for the first year (unless the employer wanted to offer more)
Don't do that, don't accept anything below living wage.
Most apprentices have just left school/university and are generally clueless about how to do anything so are only worth £4.15. Anybody that has done full time work anywhere should be assumed to have a bit more about them and be worth minimum wage at the very least.
Too many farmers take the pee when it comes to pay.
 

nick...

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
south norfolk
Don't do that, don't accept anything below living wage.
Most apprentices have just left school/university and are generally clueless about how to do anything so are only worth £4.15. Anybody that has done full time work anywhere should be assumed to have a bit more about them and be worth minimum wage at the very least.
Too many farmers take the pee when it comes to pay.
Have to agree 100%.unless you get decent money it coukd demoralise you before you start.you can earn very good money in a supermarket stacking shelves.i know it’s not what you want to do but it’s clean and warm and decent working hours.you are unlikely to get that on a farm.being a youngster you will get all the sh!t and as mentioned some will pay an absolute pittance.
nick...
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Don't do that, don't accept anything below living wage.
Most apprentices have just left school/university and are generally clueless about how to do anything so are only worth £4.15. Anybody that has done full time work anywhere should be assumed to have a bit more about them and be worth minimum wage at the very least.
Too many farmers take the pee when it comes to pay.

Be difficult sat teaching someone how to use a three point linkage, how to plumb the pressure washer in, which way to turn a spanner to undo a nut or how to move 14 month old lim bulls without being killed to someone on £10/hour.
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
For £4 an hour you can stick your pressure washer where the sun don't shine.
It is called training, all industries do it and it is an ongoing thing. I have been hitching things to 3pl for decades but put me on an unfamiliar tractor and I would need instructions of some sort.

So 6 months @ £400/week numerous breakages, pay for loadall ticket, quad bike ticket just to do basic day to day jobs for general farm work? I am sorry but I bet there isn’t a single member on this forum who would do/risk that as a employer.

Other than milking as part of a team or doing a job like egg packing etc I really can’t see how someone can start from scratch full time on a comparative to other industries wage.

I’m not saying it’s right and wish it wasn’t the case but think would be to much risk to H&S, financial and general efficiency.
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
Hello,

I am looking for my first farm worker job to kickstart my career. Obviously, I have no farming experience but I'm willing to learn and graft. What kind of wage/salary could I expect to earn?
Reading this thread i reckon you ought to get a job to pay the bills mon-fri in a factory for example and then gain farm work experience on weekends, once you have done a spring/summer of weekend work you should have learnt enough to at least command a living wage working fulltime on a farm
 

mountfarm

Member
Hello,

I am looking for my first farm worker job to kickstart my career. Obviously, I have no farming experience but I'm willing to learn and graft. What kind of wage/salary could I expect to earn?

We’ve started a 22 year old on minimum wage plus 20% for any overtime (won’t be any really this time if the year). If he completes 6 months and we’re all happy then we will put him onto £12/hour flat rate. After a year then we will put any overtime up to £14/hour.
We’ve found any less and we don’t get any interest.
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
We’ve started a 22 year old on minimum wage plus 20% for any overtime (won’t be any really this time if the year). If he completes 6 months and we’re all happy then we will put him onto £12/hour flat rate. After a year then we will put any overtime up to £14/hour.
We’ve found any less and we don’t get any interest.

what experience/qualifications did the 22 have?
 

Pilatus

Member
Location
cotswolds
@Strangelybrown .
I wish you well.
But if I was an employer I would have to say to you , “I will take you on x months trial at y pay to see how you get on work wise , we can then both revue the situation.”
As legality seems to be stacked against the employer, would the above be allowed?
Easy to get lumbered with an incompetent employee , I may sound harsh but it is the truth.
On the other side easy for a new person to the industry, to be taken in by a skin flint , slave driving , uncouth farmer, unfortunately there are STILL some about.
 

Formatted

Member
Livestock Farmer
Anyone who is prepared to pay you sell than the minimum/living wage is not someone you want to work for. As above plenty of dairy farms are looking for milking cover + additional support. That is a great place to get a well rounded view of what happens on a farm and you'll quickly find out what you enjoy most be it working with stock, sitting in a tractor or you might not like the muck and prefer to earn more working 8-4 on a building site.
 

Pilatus

Member
Location
cotswolds
Anyone who is prepared to pay you sell than the minimum/living wage is not someone you want to work for. As above plenty of dairy farms are looking for milking cover + additional support. That is a great place to get a well rounded view of what happens on a farm and you'll quickly find out what you enjoy most be it working with stock, sitting in a tractor or you might not like the muck and prefer to earn more working 8-4 on a building site.
You forgot to mention the early start on dairy farms especially if doing the milking “4/5 am, better they know before they start.
 
Just be careful who you work for obviously expect to start near minimum as your likely to be costing you employer at first until they have you trained up to there standards but some will just keep you at a crap wage I started at 16 on 3.80 an hour which was below minimum and got a small pay rise every couple of months for the first couple years as and when he felt i was coming in and improving conversely friend of mine started at minimum and was still on it 2 years later

On the flip side there are a lot of folk who start a bit older but at the same level of experience, and yet expect £10-15 an hour to start.
 
I realise the time, effort and expense it takes for an employer to put inexperienced employees through various training routes. To be honest, as a first job to gain experience I'd be happy just to do general labour to get a feel of what things are like working on a farm day in day out, figure out if I'm suited to the job etc.

Also, I'm not necessarily expecting just one place to offer me a full week's work. Id be willing to work on a couple of farms and do a few days on each.
 

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