Ag Policy Blog

Farm groups are praising changes made by the Department of Labor (DOL) to revise how hourly wages are set for temporary foreign workers under the H-2A program.

The wage changes in the interim final rule published in the Federal Register will save H-2A employers $2.46 billion per year.

The rule affected roughly 22,000 farms that hire H-2A workers and approximately 371,000 or so immigrant workers, based on 2024 figures of H-2A employment.

While the federal government has shutdown, the Department of Labor was still able to publish the new interim final rule in the Federal Register. The rule lowers the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) methodology for H-2A workers.

Under the changes, H-2A wages will drop between $1.12 to $3.18 an hour depending on the state. At least part of that downward adjustment in hourly wages is due to the Labor Department calculating housing costs for H-2A workers, which employers are not required to pay for domestic workers.

The lower wages will lead farmers to hire more H-2A workers. The Department of Labor estimates farmers will hire approximately 119,000 additional H-2A workers as a result.

The rule comes after Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced USDA would no longer produce the Farm Labor Survey, which farm groups had argued unfairly drove increases in wages. Instead, the Labor Department will rely on its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey to generate annual analysis on H-2A wages going forward.

"Farm Bureau thanks the Trump administration, Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Secretary Brooke Rollins for advocating for solutions to a broken system," said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. "For many farmers, prices for the products they raise are low while production expenses are at record highs, so a fair wage rate is essential. In most states, the new rates will help farmers afford to get crops from the fields to the tables of America's families."

Farm labor expenses this year reached $53.5 billion, up 3.6% from a year ago, after a 5% increase a year earlier, "driven by wage increases and ongoing labor shortages," the Labor Department stated in the 166-page rule.

Other groups such as the North American Blueberry Council and the U.S. Apple Association also praised the changes.

"In less than three years, grower prices for apples have fallen 28%, while labor costs over that time have risen 9%, and 60% over the last decade," said Jim Bair, President and CEO of the U.S. Apple Association (USApple). "The economic strain of that picture is seen in the thousands of growers that are just barely hanging onto their farms, many of which have been passed down through generations."

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

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