Compensation continues to present challenges for employers across the agriculture and food industries. From employee and candidate expectations for pay transparency to negotiating starting pay and raises, navigating the complex yet essential area of pay can be daunting.
Retention
AgCareers.com surveyed agriculture and food employers to discover compensation trends; using compensation to address retention strategies was their top concern for 2024, according to the AgCareers.com U.S. Compensation Practices Survey.
Companies reported using various techniques to keep staff, but their most frequently used intentional retention strategies related directly to the total rewards package: employee benefits (87%) and competitive pay rates (77%).
Salary Planning
Salary planning was also a top concern among employers. Nearly all (97%) anticipate that at least some or all staff will receive salary increases this year, most notably a merit increase for employee performance.
Two-thirds of employers review salaries annually, and companies were more likely to prefer salary data related to their industry. Over 40% of employers said they use geographical pay differentials, most commonly on a regional level.
Pay Equity and Transparency
Pay equity, equal pay for equal work, and transparency were also top compensation concerns for agriculture and food employers.
The purpose of pay equity is to provide equal pay for equal work. Over 80% of employers responding were concerned about equal pay within their organization, and over half of organizations had conducted a pay equity audit in the past year.
Salary transparency can take many forms and being “transparent” may mean different things to different organizations. Each U.S. state has laws and continuously updates new legislation that may mandate salary transparency of varying degrees. Two-thirds of employers responding to the AgCareers.com survey already had some level of salary transparency in their organization or planned to become transparent.
Recruiting
Posting salary levels is becoming increasingly essential to recruit and retain top talent. AgCareers.com’s job board data shows that job postings listing salaries outperform those that do not.
Sign-on bonuses are also a significant recruitment tactic in the industry, especially for challenging roles. AgCareers.com asked employers in the Compensation Practices Survey what tactics they used to fill hard-to-fill positions. Sign-on bonuses were by far the top method.
Bonnie Johnson is the marketing and communications manager for AgCareers.com.
