MONTGOMERY – Farmers in New York say the governor’s proposed minimum wage hike would have a “devastating effect” on the state’s agricultural industry and the people it is intended to help.
Local farmers and officials of the New York State and local farm bureaus denounced the plan while at the Orange County Chamber of Commerce offices in Montgomery on Monday.
Diana Lupinski, the wife of Orange County Farm Bureau president John Lupinski, a Goshen vegetable grower, said if a small business owner or farmer cannot afford to pay the $15 per hour wage, it will become necessary to lay off employees. “This will lead to unemployment for the worker and unemployment fees to the employer forced to lay off that individual,” she said.
Chris Kelder, Ulster County’s representative to the state farm bureau’s board of directors, said the $15 minimum wage is one of the biggest issues facing small businesses and family farms in years.
Jennifer Crist Kohn, who handles the finances for the 600-acre Crist Brothers Orchards in Walden, said 50 percent of the orchard’s revenues went to labor costs last year. If the minimum wage is raised to $15, it will increase the cost by another 30 percent, she said. Calling the situation “pretty devastating,” Kohn said she is “not really sure we could hang in there.”
Alisha Albinder, from Hudson River Fruit Distributors in Milton, whose
family owns three farms in Ulster and one in Dutchess County, said an
increase to $15 per hour would mean at least $1 million more in labor
costs for her family’s operations.
Statewide, Farm Credit East estimates that agricultural costs will increase between $387 million and $622 million by 2021.
