Though actual data isn’t available for 2020, off -farm income, the loss of wages and salaries earned off the farm is most likely the result of a decline in farm household income because of COVID-19. This is according to the USDA, Economic Research Service analysis of Farms and farm households in February 2021. This information can be found here: https://www.ers.usda.gov/covid-19/farms-and-farm-households/. The extent of the loss is forecast to be minimized by the stimulus checks offered through the coronavirus relief plan legislation known as the CARES Act. Diving a bit deeper, another 2019 ERS report reviewed the farm household income and characteristics of principal farm operator households by major occupation in 2019 and showed that 18% of those were full-time farmers/ranchers and 6% of those who had off-farm income lived in poverty. This information can be found here: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data- products/farm-household-income-and-characteristics/
Examples of off-farm income include:
Self-employment
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Off-farm wage/salary jobs
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Public and private pensions
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Interest and dividend payments
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Asset sales
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Social Security payments
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Other sources of income
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The 2019 Farm Labor Survey (FLS) conducted by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), indicated that average real farm wages for nonsupervisory crop and livestock workers (excluding contract labor) were $13.99 as compared to the nonfarm economy for private-sector nonsupervisory occupations wage of $23.51. Average hourly wages for hired agricultural managers stood at $24.77 in 2019, up 6.2% from the year before. Supervisors averaged $21.34 per hour, up 4.9%. This information can be found here: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/#employment. This comparative data suggest that level of assigned responsibility of the farmworker determines if they are earning a living wage as described above. According to the USDA Economic Research Service’s December 2020 Bulletin Number 2020 titled America’s Diverse Family Farms 2020, women are operators in more than half (51%) of all farming operations; principal operators of 14% of operations; with 37% of operations having female operators not identified by
the respondent as a principal operator. Bulletin 2020 can be found here: https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/100012/eib-220.pdf?v=8046
A May 2020 study conducted by the Rand Corporation surveyed 2000 individuals and found that about 30% of households representing all levels of income were having trouble paying their bills due tothe COVID-19 pandemic. The problem was highly concentrated among low-income households. Even so, many households, whose income had remained stable, reported that they were struggling to pay bills. Of those, about 40%of non-Hispanic black households and nearly 50% of Hispanic households reported problems paying their bills,
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