What is the value of a meat industry employee? If you treat each one as a number on a human-resources spreadsheet, you’d probably say about $15 an hour, depending on where you are in the country or their job responsibilities. I’d like to think the industry thinks beyond an HR number and sees that there’s so much more to an employee than their ability to go in day after day and do their job. They are a spouse, a parent, a friend, a relative. They work for 40 to 60 hours a week to live the rest of the time. You can put a value on a person’s work with a salary, but can you put a price on their life?
The Department of Labor recently issued a series of statements announcing citations against companies that failed to protect employees from exposure to the coronavirus. Two meat processing plants were cited, which led to some outcry within the industry. Let’s take a look into it.