Hiring Couples.

Some love it, some hate it...

Whats your take? Why do you like/not like hiring couples (for apprenticeships/WWOOFing/paid positions/ etc.)?

I would be ecstatic. I can't seem to be able to get a single person. To be able to get two would be great. My guess is I am going to have to raise the pay up, but ouch I am already at $10/hr starting with no experience or $12/hr with some experience here or somewhere else where I can trust them to work unsupervised. My guess is I am going to have to go up to $15/hr which means they will be making more than I do off the farm.

I think hiring a couple is a great idea, though I would privilege a married couple (or domestic partners) over non-married. Not to be old-fashioned or anything, but it is a pretty reliable indicator of maturity and/or stability. My wife and I both got jobs on the farm I currently work at. The biggest incentive was that they gave us our own 3-bedroom mobile home. This replaced rent costs for us, while costing them relatively little. I broke down the economics of this a little more in that thread of mine which you posted on.

The other incentive was that she was not bound to the workplace for the second year, and the farmers kept dropping hints about how much they liked kids. Well, it just so happened that we were planning on having kids, and now we're all moved into this mobile home with a newborn baby, approaching the second year, and I am not planning on going ANYWHERE for a while. At least not for another year.

Other incentives could include offering health insurance starting year 2, end-of-season bonuses, and/or a 2nd or 3rd year raise.

I think hiring a couple is a great way to get more mature and reliable help in the door.

I thought about not posting because my experience is not about farm labor, but I think it still holds true for you.

I recently hired a couple for web development subcontracting for my web design business Badgett Web Design. I'm currently running this business from Costa Rica while producing an online permaculture design course. This is for my wife and I's permaculture education website http://organiclifeguru.com.

Keep in mind I've hired a lot of independent contractors in my work of helping businesses get more leads and sales via the internet. I've also been a subcontractor myself for other agencies, so I have a lot of perspective.

With a couple you get two brains and more output (even if they have kids) in my experience. Their individual strengths also shine thorough so you get more creative thinking and problem solving on your tasks from their net strengths.

Hire them!

There's also a weird discrimination against couples and especially unconventional families in the United States, so you have a unique role in being part of challenging whatever stereotypes are in place.