Agriculture salaries heading north

Salaries increased faster in agriculture in 2022 than the national wage growth as employee turnover surges.

The cost of agriculture’s labour shortage has been revealed, with a new survey finding workers received a 4.6 per cent average salary increase last year.

That figure is well above the decade-high quarterly wage growth of 3.3 per cent in December, according to released last week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The confidential Rimfire Resources annual humaAgriculture salaries heading northn resources review found more than one in five agribusinesses paid increases above five per cent in 2022; while there has been a surge in organisations reporting an employee turnover rate of more than 20 per cent.

The vast majority of that turnover is voluntary, indicating keeping workers is a growing challenge for agribusiness.

The survey of 70 agribusinesses also found 92 per cent of businesses increased salaries last year, with almost half of those above what companies had budgeted to outlay.

The trend reflects the labour shortage across agriculture, as the industry continues to scramble for workers, from farm hands to harvest crews, or shearers to meat processors.

Mick Hay of Rimfire resources believes there has never been a better time to look at the huge range of agricultural and agribusiness careers.

The National Farmers Federation estimates there is a 172,000 worker shortfall along the food supply chain.

Rimfire, a specialist agribusiness recruitment company, also found that 2022 registered the highest ever annual tally of agriculture online job advertisements, with the first ever monthly total above 1000 ads posted in August.

Rimfire managing director Mark Hay said they had “never seen anything like” the wage hikes of the past year, and that it was a prime time for jobseekers to consider a move into agriculture.

“It is quite high, and there are some great opportunities, but agriculture is not unique at the moment, there are a lot of jobs out there and fewer people looking,” Mr Hay said.

“And while it is very positive, we are at the end of three years of La Nina and if it gets drier or commodity prices soften that may impact job numbers.”

The report found that 99 per cent of agribusinesses planned to increase salaries in 2023.

To address voluntary employee turnover, 90 per cent of agribusinesses made an incentive payment to employees in 2022 and 56 per cent implemented new retention strategies.

The review also found the agribusiness industry gender pay gap at 18 per cent is marginally better than the national average of 23 per cent.

However, CEO roles are significantly under-represented by women in agribusiness, with 4 per cent of incumbents female, compared to 22 per cent nationally.

At the same time, there have been more females graduating with university agriculture degrees than males for several years.