Low wages in high places: U.S. proposes big pay hike for state sheepherders

MEEKER — The anglers and bikers traveling to the mountains slowed their cars to a crawl as hundreds of sheep flocked the country road north of Meeker. Ahead, a sheepherder on horseback surveyed the animals and behind them, the man’s small camper, or “campito,” was hidden by trees. From Moffat to Alamosa counties, Colorado is a big player in the nation’s sheep industry. The animals thrive in the state’s high, dry mountains. Colorado raised the third largest number of sheep in the U.S. this year and ranked third in the value of sales of sheep and goats at $87 million in 2012, the latest data available, according to a 2014 USDA fact sheet. Sheepherders — mostly immigrant guest workers from South America on H2-A visas — are responsible for the health of the flocks, day to day. The workers aren’t subject to minimum wage like other farm workers. Instead, their wages are set specially by the federal government at $750 a month in Colorado, a wage that has increased by only $50 in the past 20 years for most states, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Now, the sheep industry is girding itself for what it sees as a storm. The labor department has proposed more than tripling the minimum wage in Colorado to $2,441 a month by 2020. The industry is counter-proposing a wage closer to $1,400 a month, fearing wages any higher would upend generations-old family businesses, flooding the market with unwanted animals and sending ripples through rural economies. “I won’t be in the sheep business,” second-generation Meeker-area sheep rancher Tom Kourlis said. “If these come into play, I’m going to implement an exit strategy in September.” Immigrant rights groups in Colorado and across the country, and even the Episcopal Church, support the higher wages...more