As exciting as it can be to work and make a living on the frontline and ground level of the newest American industry, working in cannabis can also come with significant challenges. From the ever-present issues that exist due to cannabis’ federally illegal status, to the disadvantageous fact that cannabis companies can’t receive any FDIC-insured banking services and the strict regulations and costly fines that industry operators face on a daily basis, the grass may not always be greener on the other side.
For Nevada cannabis employees and operators in particular, gainful and compliant employment in the cannabis industry can get expensive due to the agent card costs alone. In the Silver State, there are five possible licenses (more commonly known as the way cooler sounding “agent card”) that prospective employees may need to possess and keep current: Cultivation Facility, Product Manufacturing Facility, Distributor, Retail Store and Testing Facility/Laboratory. Each of these cards are good for two years before expiration, and the fee is $150 per card. Fingerprinting is also required which tacks on an additional cost of up to $65 per card.
A biennial cost of $215 per agent card simply to keep your job in this industry can quickly add up, especially when one considers the low average hourly wages for vitally important cannabis employees on the frontlines of cultivation and retail. When I started working in the cannabis industry, I made a laughably low $12 an hour for trimming work at a couple cultivation facilities. A simple Indeed search for cannabis jobs in Las Vegas show similarly low rates of pay, with $13-14 an hour seeming to be the average. Many companies that post entry-level hourly positions don’t even list their rate of pay, only adding speculation around how low these wages could be.
An employee making $12 an hour would need to work nearly 18 hours to pay for the cost of each individual agent card. In the common event that the employee is a packager of both flower products and concentrate products alike, then the employee would be required to have both a Cultivation Facility and Product Manufacturing Facility card. For both licenses and fingerprinting, it’s a cost of$430 every other year. This is a considerable amount to an employee who is barely making enough to survive on.
Additionally establishing meaningful professional connections in cannabis is a difficult task, as turnover in the cannabis industry is astronomically high. The cannabis industry data firm Headset summarized in their 2022 analysis report a shocking level of turnover.
“In both the US and Canada, approximately 55% of budtenders who worked at any point over the previous 12 months had departed by the end of that time period,” the report detailed. “To put this into context, in 2021 the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a turnover of 47.2% across all industries.”
Arguably the darkest part of working in the cannabis industry are the tragically high rates of workplace behavior that is far from professional and even further from decent. All types of misconduct, harassment, and even assault have been reported informally as well as to the respective cannabis company’s human resources department. Yet in many of these circumstances, little to no action is taken whatsoever against the perpetrators of this behavior. For a more thorough understanding of these instances of highly unprofessional behavior, followI Detroit-area cannabis professional Andrea Doyle on LinkedIn and follow her #spilltheteasaturday series of posts. M
In summary, working in any state’s cannabis industry can be incredibly exciting and a worthwhile experience for professional and personal growth, no pun intended. However, an aspiring cannabis employee must remember the many financial and personnel-related concerns that exist on this new frontier while it’s finally gaining footing in the greater American economy.
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