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Profile of Hired Farmworkers,
A 2008 Update—Hired farmworkers make up a third
of the total agricultural labor force and are critical
to U.S. agricultural production, particularly in labor-intensive
sectors such as fruits and vegetables. The hired farmworker
labor market is unique because it includes a large population
of relatively disadvantaged and often unauthorized workers,
a portion of whom migrate to, and within, the United States.
Recent economic and demographic trends, such as changing
agricultural production methods that permit year-round
employment, expanding immigrant populations in nonmetropolitan
counties, and growing concerns over U.S. immigration policies,
have elicited increased interest in hired farmworkers.
This 2008 profile serves as an update to the 2000 Economic
Research Service analysis of the 1998 Current Population
Survey using current data with expanded sections on legal
status, poverty, housing, and use of social services.
(7/08)
The
Importance of Farm Program Payments to Farm Households—Less
than half of all farms receive farm payments from commodity
or conservation programs. And two-thirds of those that
receive payments receive less than $10,000—a relatively
small amount of income compared to their other income
sources and their wealth position. This article describes
how different types of program payments are distributed
by farm size and region and identifies the relatively
small share of farms for which payments represent a large
part of farm returns. Amber Waves (6/07).
Structure and Finances
of U.S. Farms: Family Farm Report, 2007 Edition—This
report presents comprehensive information on family and
nonfamily farms and important trends in farming, operator
household income, farm performance, and contracting. Most
farms are family farms, and small family farms account
for most farms but produce a modest share of farm output.
A companion brochure
summarizes the report's findings. (6/07)
Changing
Federal Tax Policies Affect Farm Households Differently—Recent
Federal tax legislation has reduced income tax rates for
both individuals and businesses and cut the number of
farm estates that owe Federal estate taxes. Commercial
farmers are the primary beneficiaries of the reduced business
and estate taxes. (11/05)
How
Do U.S. Farmers Plan for Retirement?—Retirement
and succession planning are of considerable importance
to farm households, and there are good reasons to believe
that farm households are affected by savings and retirement
policies in ways that are different from the rest of the
Nation's households. For example, compared with the U.S.
labor force, farm operators are considerably older. In
addition to working past traditional retirement age, farm
operator households tend to have more varied income sources
and forms of wealth, than the general population. While
fewer farm operators are covered by employer-sponsored
pensions than are nonfarmers, most farm operators save
from current income on a regular basis and have accumulated
diversified financial portfolios, including individual
retirement savings. Amber Waves (4/05).
Farm
Payments: Decoupled Payments Increase Households' Well-Being,
Not Production—Traditionally, subsidies in the
U.S. and elsewhere have linked payments to current prices
and production. Such subsidies distort, or alter, the
signals sent by market prices. In 1996, the U.S. revamped
its farm support and introduced a farm payment that breaks
the links between the amounts paid to farmers, their level
of production, and market prices. There is little evidence
that these decoupled payments distort production. Their
primary consequence has been an improvement in the overall
well-being of recipient households that own base acres,
where well-being is defined broadly to encompass income,
wealth, and consumption, as well as how people choose
to spend their time. Amber Waves (2/03).
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