As agricultural organizations and growers await final agency guidance, state regulatory bodies are simultaneously reviewing AB 2646 to map out how its provisions fit within their respective purviews.
The Department of Industrial Relations enforces the $19.75 minimum wage floor, regulates and licenses farm labor contractors and calculates annual cost-of-living rate adjustments.
“DIR is reviewing AB 2646 and preparing for its implementation,” a department spokesperson tells The Packer.
Meanwhile, the Employment Development Department evaluates the broader financial, tax and workforce administration impacts triggered by the wage increase. The agency oversees payroll tax audits, unemployment and disability benefit calculations, H-2A certification tracking and guest-worker job postings.
A spokesperson with the EDD’s Public Affairs Branch notes that employers submitting job orders must offer a wage rate that is “at least the highest of the AEWR [Adverse Effect Wage Rate], the agreed-upon collective bargaining wage, the federal minimum wage, the state minimum wage or any other wage rate the employer intends to pay.”
The spokesperson adds that if a grower offers a rate below the required state minimum wage floor, the agency will issue a Notice of Deficiency citing 20 CFR § 655.120.
