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I was not speaking about our business, as we do not farm.

When we had workers, they were part-time. We stopped having employees in the mid-90s. We always paid well over minimum for 10-20 hours a week, with a lot of flexibility. We were producing jewelery, felted notions and hand-woven clothing at wholesale. I never had anyone I could trust to work while we were at trade shows...these were people who had to be closely supervised. They did metal prep/clean up work, assembly, loom prep and machine sewing.

There were no shortages of applicants from the 80s-90s. But what sounds like fun and easy work had tight parameters for quality. This was the part that most failed. The general attitude was “What is the allowable amount of slop?” Since there was none, many just couldn’t hack it. I had people who would not walk outside for 50 feet in the rain, even if I did.

I’ve never had a foreign worker, so I don’t know their demands/abilities/qualifications. I never asked anyone to do anything I didn’t also do and only hired when orders were beyond our individual ability to fill.

I’m sure you would find our salary/profit as owners too paltry, as well. We were not profiting off others. We were sharing the available work/revenue in an area short of jobs.