Lack of Mobility and Training Opportunities

Tenure, mobility, and access to raises vary widely based on race and nationality. Overall, foreign-born workers reported being stuck in lower wage positions for longer periods of time, with fewer opportunities to climb the ladder into better jobs at the plants. Foreign-born workers and Latino workers were much less likely to report having been offered a promotion than U.S.-born workers, and Latinos in particular reported staying in their jobs longer. Interestingly, foreign-born workers reported greater rates of being offered a raise by their employer, but this may be related to lower starting and overall wages for foreign-born workers compared to white, U.S.-born workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, median weekly earnings in 2014 for foreign-born workers were about 24% less than earnings for native born workers. [76]

Tenure

Tenure at poultry processing plants varied among the workers surveyed, but overall average job tenure was relatively short. Latino workers typically had the longest tenures at their current jobs, working an average of six years with the same employer. Black workers had the shortest tenures on average — about a year with the same employer. Typically, foreign-born workers said they worked with their employers twice as long as U.S.- born workers (see Table 9).

The especially long average tenure of Latino workers may reflect in part the declining cyclical structure of migration from Mexico and Central America to the United States and an increase in longer-term settlement [77] as border enforcement has increased. Because job opportunities and mobility may also be more limited for undocumented workers (discussed below), they are likely to remain at the same job for longer than other workers. In contrast U.S.-born workers (white and black) may be likely to have more opportunities to move to another firm or exit the industry entirely. White workers’ somewhat longer tenure compared to black workers and API workers may reflect their reported much higher likelihood of being offered a promotion or a raise (see below). Black workers’ especially short tenure may reflect their lack of opportunity for internal promotion but their broader set of options outside the firm or the industry, as compared to foreign-born workers.

Mobility

Only 22% of workers surveyed said they were offered a promotion to a more comfortable or higher-paid position in the processing facility. One worker described being moved to a position with a heavier workload but not receiving any increase in pay along with this change. [78] Foreign-born workers and non-white workers (especially Latino workers) were much less likely to have been offered a promotion than white, U.S.-born workers (Table 11). These findings are consistent with research showing that immigrants and people of color face more barriers to career mobility than white or U.S.-born workers. [79] These groups are more likely to be stuck in low-wage jobs in the secondary labor market, with fewer opportunities for advancement, skill development, or higher pay.

One might expect that workers offered a promotion would have had been at their jobs longer, but our survey showed the opposite to be true. Workers who had been offered a promotion said they had typically worked at the plant for less time. The workers offered a promotion had worked for that employer an average of 10 months less than workers who had not been offered a promotion (Tables 10 and 11). Taken in consideration with the disparities in promotions based on race, this suggests that white workers may have received such preferential consideration for promotions that it overrides the fact that they often had not worked at the plant for as long as some of their Latino and foreign-born colleagues. According to survey results, foreign-born and Latino workers reported both the longest tenures as poultry processing workers and are the least likely to be offered a promotion.

White workers also are likely to have more opportunities for jobs outside of the poultry industry, which increases their ability to leverage their credentials to move up a career ladder faster. Race- and ethnicity-based discrimination [80] and undocumented workers’ fear of deportation likely restricts job opportunities significantly for foreign-born workers and people of color in Arkansas. One worker explained this:

“We choose to remain at the workplace because we need it, and the company needs us to make them profitable. Because some of us are not able to speak English, we are not offered other higher positions. We have to withstand the working conditions as is.”

In addition, the Arkansas poultry industry is a relatively closed network, with several large employers dominating the market, which makes it more difficult for workers to advance by switching to a different plant within the same industry. One man surveyed, alleged, “I worked for [a poultry company] for maybe eight years. I did witness a lot of things that happened in [the company] that are against the law. I decided to resign and then applied at other poultry plants in the community like George’s, Cargill, and Ozark Mountain Poultry, but they didn’t hire me because [the company] had notified them that I was in a Medical Leave of Absence and that I had not quit my employment with them. I went to [the company] employment center to ask why Human Resources is saying that . . . when they clearly knew I had quit several months. HR was not able to give me an answer and changed their story.” [81] Workers not offered a promotion may tent to stay at their current jobs if they believe that they are less likely to be able to secure a better job someplace else, within the poultry industry or outside of it.

Raises

Of the workers surveyed, six out of ten (60%) said they were offered a raise by their employer, 27% said they were offered a raise, and 23% were unsure whether or not they had been offered a raise. According to survey results, foreign-born workers were about twice as likely as U. S.-born workers to report having been offered a raise. API workers were the most likely to report having been offered a raise, followed by Latino workers and white workers. Black workers were the least likely to report having been offered a raise and the most likely to be unsure of whether they had been offered one (Table 12). While many people reported being offered a raise, the typical raise amount was quite small: median of $0.25 and an average of $0.76.

It is possible that foreign-born or non-white poultry workers were the most likely to be offered a raise because these workers often have lower starting wages and consistently make less than white workers or U.S.-born workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, median weekly earnings in 2014 for foreign-born workers were about 24% less than earnings for native-born workers ($664 compared to $820). [82]

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