A farm wife is worth $19,000 a year, says a New Brunswick judge.
Justice Paulette Garnett of Court of Queen’s Bench was ruling on an insurance case to determine the value of work done in and out of the home by a farm woman killed in a vehicle accident six years ago. The judge awarded the husband and sons $361,000 to cover the years until the husband retired.
The award included $8,000 a year for her farm work and $11,000 for household chores.
That amount is too low, says Manitoba Women’s Institute past-president Barbara Stienwandt. She was quoted in the Winnipeg Free Press as saying $11,000 for a homemaker is below the poverty line. Also, farms are larger and wage rates for hired hands are a third higher in Manitoba than in New Brunswick.
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Shelley Dahlman, of the Saskatchewan Women’s Agricultural Network, said it is positive that farm women and their work are being recognized and valued.
“A lot of people think farm women just bake pies all day.”
Important role
Carolyn Van Dine, president of the Canadian Farm Women’s Network, said her group has been trying to make people realize how crucial farm women are.
“If you were to take farm women out of the agriculture business in Canada the impact would be huge. We’d lose an awful lot of farms.”
Shannon Storey of the National Farmers Union said the ruling not only helps in cases of fatalities but could also be of value in determining disability claims. She said a few years ago a woman was injured in an auger accident but could not get any compensation because she was married to the farmer.
“Hopefully this case will forestall bad outcomes of this nature,” said Storey.
She said the judge recognized the interconnection of farm and household work but “the general legal culture hasn’t.” Storey said any farm woman who handles chemically stained overalls in the laundry is well aware of the farm and home intersection.
