I heard someone say that if a head of lettuce cost 1 dollar the labor cost was 4 cents. That’s all. So if wokers got double pay the cost fo lettuce would only be an additional 4 cents. Can anyone valdate this?
You are close enough. Its also been quoted as 10 cents.
Whatever - it’s $1.10 to $1.20. They try to scare you with the $11 crap. If it goes to $11, nobody will buy their lettuce and they will go out of business.
I doubt that would happen.
Can anyone valdate this?
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Why worry about official figures? If you know anything at all about farm work you know that to pick two heads of lettuce a minute on average would be slow indeed. That would be 120 heads per hour so the increase could not possibly be more than whatever the hourly increase is divided by 120. Ten cents a head would equal at least 12 dollars per hour more in wages. As a matter of fact I think that for one dime per head I could make a lot of money picking lettuce if that was my total compensation, and I am 63 years old.
Here ya go.
[snips]$5.00 per head lettuce is a lie! "Many people fear the first part of such a response, claiming that prices for fruits and vegetables would skyrocket, fueling inflation. But since all unskilled labor — from Americans and foreigners, in all industries — accounts for such a small part of our economy, perhaps four percent of GDP, we can tighten the labor market without any fear of sparking meaningful inflation. Agricultural economist Philip Martin has pointed out that labor accounts for only about ten percent of the retail price of a head of lettuce, for instance, so even doubling the wages of pickers would have little noticeable effect on consumers." http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/krikorian200401070923.asp AND
"According to the University of California, the cost is about 22 cents to grow and harvest a head of lettuce. Of that, about 15 cents goes for farm labor. If we doubled the wages of farm workers, the cost of a head of lettuce would increase by 15 cents - even less if labor-saving machines are justified.....For labor costs to force lettuce to $5 per head, farmers would have to pay field workers $280 an hour".....Glenn Spencer...
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2006/04/news-you-missed-immigration.html