Dairy workers' preferences for compensatory benefits: A field choice experiment with US immigrants and students

Abstract

We designed a discrete choice experiment to elicit preferences for compensatory benefits among two sets of workers in the dairy sector: immigrants and US college students planning to work in the sector. We find that immigrants rank benefits as follows (highest to lowest): retirement plan, health insurance, milk quality incentive bonus, housing assistance, and a bonus meat allotment. Immigrant workers are willing to pay more for a retirement plan and health insurance than college students. Neither group prefers to work more than 48 h per week. Our findings inform ongoing debates on the role of immigrant and industry-trained dairy workers.