Farmworkers in New York state are paid, on average, somewhat more than minimum wage, according to a report by Cornell researchers. Most are paid less than $1,000 worth of benefits, but the study didn't include housing.

Experienced fruit pickers are paid an average $10.65 per hour, and inexperienced dairy hands made $8.39 per hour, they found.

All of the 933 farms that responded to the 2009 survey paid more than the New York minimum wage, which is $7.25 per hour.

The findings were presented Jan. 25 at the 15th annual Becker Forum in Syracuse by senior extension associate Thomas Maloney, who conducted the farm labor study with Professor Emeritus Nelson Bills of the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.

They found that middle and top managers actually put in the most hours, ranging from 52 to 56 hours per week at dairies.

As for manager compensation, about 20 percent of the fruit and vegetable farms surveyed paid top managers less than $30,000 per year; 25 percent paid between $30-40K; ; 20 percent of vegetable farms and 27 percent of fruit operations paid between $40K-50K; and 33 percent of vegetable farms and 20 percent of fruit operations paid more than $50K. About 47 percent of managers received less than $5K worth of benefits, and 20 percent of vegetable farms and 30 percent of fruit farms paid $5K-$10K in benefits.

"A lot of this wasn't really a big surprise, but we wanted to be able to say there is data that reflects what's going on in the industry," Maloney said. "If we don't update some of the available information, then we are not informing the discussion about agricultural labor policy at the state and federal level."

Maloney and Bills also found that immigration policy was a major concern for many New York farmers. A majority of the farm managers surveyed who employ Latino workers said that comprehensive immigration reform and a guest worker program were very important to the success of their business. The Becker Forum focused on ways in which farmers can have an impact on federal immigration reform.

A final report will be issued in March and will be available at http://www.dyson.cornell.edu/research.

Stacey Shackford is a staff writer for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.