Paid By Piecework

I find it hard to believe that if you are as hardworking as you say
you could only earn $4.65 per hour. For many years as I was growing up in
Kelowna, my mother picked apples in the fall to make extra money. She could
pick a bin an hour no problem, and got anywhere from $8.00 to $13.00 per bin
depending on the orchard owner, the crop and the year. At age 45 my parents
purchased their own orchard and both my parents continued to pick at this
same level, at least a bin an hour.

At age 63 they sold their orchard, but in that final season by mother, AGE 63 REMEMBER, could still pick a bin an hour. They paid their hired pickers $13 per bin. Not a bad wage at all. My mother never got paid by the hour through the 1960's, 1970's or 1980's so I'm not sure where you were so fortunate to have been paid that way. As far as my mother has told me, growing up in the Okanagan, picking beans,tomatoes, apples, pears, etc. her family was always paid piecework by the pound, bushel, flat or bin.

So perhaps you'd better go back and rethink your hard-work attitude - apparently you are not as hard of a worker as you thought. I'm wondering if you had to do the same manual labor in your new country of choice how long you would last before moving back to Canada !!

C.R. (lifelong Kelowna resident)