I can't speak for all of them but the larger beekeeping outfits I know about have "beekeepers" who are in charge of X number of hives so they manage only a portion of the company's bee assets. Those beekeepers oversee seasonal labor assigned to them so there can be many beekeepers and laborers within a company. Those beekeeper positions are typically "earned" by people coming up through the ranks although experienced beekeepers can been hired to come in and manage a certain number of hives. The folks I know will often pay a bonus in really good years and a separate bonus paid to individual beekeepers who distinguish themselves from their peers by doing a really do a good job with the hives they manage. Incentives can be based on many things including honey production over some baseline, stronger hives at the end of the season for almond pollination, nuc production, etc. The basic idea in developing a huge beekeeping outfit is like eating an elephant--you do it one bite at a time! Obviously, expansion goes hand-in-hand with developing a "crop" of experienced beekeepers who keep the operation running smoothly.