The kibbutz, Israel’s iconic institution, is modifying itself as it shifts away from one of its core socialistic principles.
According to a Haifa University study, more kibbutzim are paying their members differential salaries.
Shlomo Getz, director of the university’s Institute for the Research of the Kibbutz and the Cooperative Idea, said that 72 per cent of kibbutzim have now adopted this model.
“The kibbutz is changing in a dramatic way,” he said in an interview last week from Haifa.
Rather than compensating members equally, kibbuztim are increasingly paying them wages based on the market value of their jobs, he explained.
“Paying salaries means that the kibbutz doesn’t supply all the needs of its members,” he added. “Members pay for services such as food, electricity, education and transportation.”
Contemporary kibbutzim can be classified by their methods of compensation, said Getz, who has been a member of a kibbutz since 1970.
On the traditional collective kibbutz, members are paid equally, regardless of the kind of work they perform.
On mixed model kibbutzim, members are given a small percentage of their salaries, plus things like free food or housing.
On renewing kibbutzim, a member’s salary is exclusively based on his or her income.
There are 262 kibbutzim in Israel today, of which 72 per cent are renewing kibbutzim, three per cent are mixed model kibbutzim and the rest are collective kibbutzim.
Last year, five kibbutzim shifted to the renewing model.
“It is highly probable that by the end of 2012, the number of kibbutzim shifting to alternative models will be higher than the number of kibbutzim that did so in 2009,” he said.
The population of kibbutzim has declined in recent years, from 130,000 in the 1990s to 120,000 as of 2006.
“Most of the growth in kibbutzim in recent years has come from people who were born in the city,” he said.
Kibbutz compensation models began to change in 1996, when members on four kibbutzim were first permitted to keep their incomes.
Asked why compensation models on kibbutzim are changing, Getz said, “There are many reasons. Members want these changes. They want more personal freedom and less ‘free riders.’ And values are changing, influenced by a movement in Israeli society toward greater individualism.”
Nevertheless, the kibbutz still maintains some of its old features, Getz commented.
“Major decisions are still made by members through a process of participatory democracy. And there is a sense of mutual responsibility between members, though it is more limited than it used to be.”
Despite the changes it has undergone in recent years, the kibbutz still plays a stable role in the Israeli economy, accounting for about nine per cent of Israel’s economic output, said Getz.
