2006-2007 Western Poverty & Policy Grantees

Anita Alves Pena

In the United States farmworkers are paid on either a per-piece or hourly basis. This project will study the relationship between wage contract structures, the legal status of the workers, and how the received earnings of agricultural workers compare to the minimum wage in the nonagricultural sector nationally and in the local labor markets of the western United States. The project will consider how minimum wages can be used to decrease income variance among piece rate workers and minimize poverty among farmworkers without adversely affecting agricultural employment levels or food prices. Thus, this study will contribute to the understanding of the informal relationship between the minimum wage system in the United States, illegal and legal immigration, and the wage structures of the working poor in the agricultural sector.

WCPC Funded Project:

"Poverty, Legal Status, and Pay Basis in U.S. Agriculture", Anita Alves Pena, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Colorado State University

Contact:

Email: anita.pena@colostate.edu
Homepage: http://lamar.colostate.edu/~aalves/