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Room Board ????????

G

gmccool

Well-known Member
I used to hear my Dad & others talk about someone working for farmers for room & board. My ? is when did you switch from R & B to being paid. Was it when you started to get the ground ready to plant. Did pay start when disking started or did it start when you started to haul manure before disking or was it before that when you started to repair machinery for the spring season. Also did your pay stop when the harvest was done & then you went back to R & B. What about in the winter when you ground feed or shelled corn or pitched manure was that just part of your R&B or did you then get some or partial pay. Thanks Gerald
 
The old hired hands around here that got Room and Board where usually paid a fixed amount each week/month year round. They worked the hours required for the season. In the winter this many times would be just morning and evening chores. Usually they got Sundays off.

This was more common the further West you got. That is why many cattle ranches have bunk houses. It was common for the hire men to live at the ranch/farm. The distance between the ranches is greater so when travel took lots of time people lived closer to where they worked.
 
My guess would be livestock chores in the winter would be considered for room and board and once spring broke and crop work started wages would start.
 
My dad did that at a large dairy in Independence when he got out of high school. They had a dorm for the hired men.
 
Don't forget if they put in more than 30 hr/week they may qualify for health care. R&B is payment in kind, IRS may want it's share, workman's comp, and SS. BE CAREFUL.

I heard of a case where a tenant wanted to work off rent and paint the place. Fell off a ladder, claimed back injury, sued and judge ruled in her favor. Payment in kind, workman's comp just for painting to work off rent. BE CAREFUL.


George
 
Right qfter WW2, hired man got$30 per month from Nov-Mar, $60 per monthApril-Oct. Room and Board included.Every other week end off. That is what my Dad paided, By 1955, He told me, you couldn't hire a man to work on the farm.Auto plant jobs where much better. Bruce
 
In 1961, I got 50 cents an hour, plus Room &
Board, working on a Wisconsin Dairy Farm.
Milking twice a day, and haying, mowing, corn
cultivating, hauling manure, mucking out pig
and calf pens..there was never lack of work !
I finally signed up for the Army. The Army was heaven compared to that farm.
 
First job was washing dishes for a big dining room. Paid 1.10/hr. Worked all but two meals per week. Did get fed. That was probably worth a mint then. We could put it away. But after looking at it on the dirty dishes, we really weren't all that hungry.
That was 1969/70.
 
From stories I heard, my grandfather had a hired man who lived with them like family. Single man with no family, had done time in prison. Grandma put his pay in a savings account for him. Several times a year he would get "itchy feet" and ask for some or all of his pay to be withdrawn from the bank and given to him. He would be gone for weeks and suddenly show up again or call and Grandma had to go somewhere to pick him up. He knew how my Grandpa did things so never had to be told what to do. Never left in the middle of haying or anything like that either. The way my Dad and Uncle talked about Warren it was always like he was part of the family.
 
My father worked a ranch in 1963 until 1972. We had a house to live in and ten acres. We could have a garden and any cows or pigs we wanted on the ten acres. Pay was 150.00 a month. But with six kids it didn't go far.
 
In the mountain west in the teens, 20's and 30 it was common for cowboys to be paid $ 30 per month + room and board March to December. Winter time feeding they got tobacco, Levi's and room and board. Top hands made a about 60 paid year round,they didn't pitch hay or farm.
WWII pretty much ended those practices, However lots of cowboys and sheepherders still get board and room on top of wages.
 
My Dad told me that he worked for a farmer for R+B & vry little wages.
Also told me that when he went to bed that the Farmer and his wife would pop pop corn but would not share with him. Dad just loved pop corn.
 
My wife had a great uncle that worked on a dairy farm in WI. Farmer held his wages until he asked for all of the money when the county fair started. He would go back to the farm after the fair ended - totally broke and hung over. He wouldn't leave the farm again until the fair the following year. He died working on that farm.
 
(quoted from post at 09:34:08 06/23/13) Don't forget if they put in more than 30 hr/week they may qualify for health care. R&B is payment in kind, IRS may want it's share, workman's comp, and SS. BE CAREFUL.


George
Click to expand...

Oldest daughter just got her hours cut from 32 a week to 28 because of external_linkcare. Yup, the gov't is really helping us out!
 
Room and board was alive and well into the 70's in some areas. Then it gets political. The farmers were offering room and board and or a house with gas and utilities paid for married folks. They were often paid below minimum wage but with R&B they actually made out OK. Then the government decided that even though the farm hand was being compensated that the farmer had to pay minimum wage. That cause a lot of the small farmers to quit because they no longer could afford to give both R&B plus wages. That change also sped up farmers going over to round bales. The government thought they were not getting all the tax money they should.

Rick
 
If the person gets injured, I bet the courts would say that R&B makes that person your employee.

Just like the lady working off her rent, got injured and the courts said she was an employee.

JohnT, what's your opinion, employee or not?
George
 
(quoted from post at 09:47:35 06/24/13) amazing how idiots turn this political every time they get a chance
Click to expand...

Actually the political end of this was already brought up in the post I quote, idiot. The point is that there are lots of things to think about these days. You want to hide your head in the sand, fine, but don't get nasty about it. No one asked for your opinion.
 
(quoted from post at 01:00:00 06/25/13) too bad some idiots never look past the end of there own nose.....
Click to expand...

CaseE: I do look past the end of my nose. That is why external_link care is my concern. I am going to be paying the taxes to pay for this mess. My kids and grand kids are the ones that are finding full time jobs are hard to find with this comming at employers. So it concerns all of us.

How does it tie into this post??? The minimum wages laws of the 1960s and 1970s just about wiped out Room and board deals as the FEDERAL government ruled that full time emplyee had to be PAID a minumum wage and that Room an Board did not count toward the minimum wage required.

This health law is going to lay another layer of government between employee and employer. It is going to cost many people their jobs. Then it is going to bankrupt the medicial system. Think Medi Care is a balanced program?? It costs BILLIONS each year to keep going. When it was passed in the 1960s they said it would never be more than a few hundred million at the top in total cost.
 
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