Editor’s note: The following is one of the issues highlighted in The Packer’s Year in Produce 2023 review.
More than ever, fresh produce growers needed guest workers to harvest their crops in 2023.
At the same time, the escalating wage costs of the H-2A program — up nearly 20% since 2020 — have many desperate for relief.
In December, the National Council of Agricultural Employers petitioned Acting Department of Labor Secretary Julie Su to change the way H-2A wages are set for the program.
“America’s farm and ranch families and American consumers continue to bear the brunt of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) misuse of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Labor Survey (FLS) and other nonfarm wage rates in establishing mandatory minimum wage rates in the H-2A program,” Michael Marsh, president and CEO of NCAE, said in the release. “The willful failure of the Department in carrying out its mandate from the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of determining no adverse effect on the domestic workforce due to the employment of H-2A Temporary Workers must come to an immediate halt. American agriculture’s foreign competition has been the beneficiary of the DOL’s malign neglect of its responsibility, and this neglect jeopardizes U.S. national security.”
The NCAE said more than 60% of the fresh fruit consumed in the U.S. and greater than 40% of the fresh vegetables consumed are produced in other countries. The group said U.S. farm and ranch families are at a “tipping point” in sustaining their legacy family farming and ranching operations.
“The Department must change course,” Marsh said. “American consumers deserve food produced ethically and sustainably in the United States and American farm and ranch families deserve the opportunity to compete in the American market. The economic arguments are crystal clear that there exists no adverse effect on the domestic workforce due to the employment of H-2A workers and consequently, the mandate of a wage rate by the Department is a solution in search of a problem.”
The American Farm Bureau Federation in December reported H-2A usage reached new highs in fiscal year 2023, despite an increase in the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, which outpaced the hourly wage growth rate of all private employees.
The increase in both demand for workers and the wage rate continues to put stress on the bottom lines of farmers and ranchers, the group said.
Farm Bureau’s Market Intel report said that the total number of certified H-2A positions was 378,513 in 2023, an increase of 2% over fiscal year 2022. While that is a slower rate of rate of increase compared with past years, Farm Bureau said the number of positions certified is still up by more than 100,000 workers compared to fiscal year 2020.
That growth in H-2A workers is coupled with a nearly 19% increase in the required wage rate since fiscal year 2020, making labor to be one of the costliest aspects of doing business for farmers and ranchers.
“As wage rates continue to rise along with the demand for farmworkers, farm families are being forced to take a hard look at their balance sheets just to stay afloat,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said. “Farming and ranching is a labor-intensive business, and many of our crops require skilled labor to plant, tend and harvest. But margins remain slim on the farm. This data shows how important and urgent it is that we get a workable fix for the H-2A program and the AEWR.”
The Biden Administration proposed changes to the H-2A program in 2023, but those were designed to help workers rather than growers.
Under the proposal, H-2A workers would receive new protections under a proposal from the Department of Labor. The proposed new rule would strengthen protections for farmworkers in the H-2A program and help prevent abuses that undermine wages and standards for all agricultural workers, according to Department of Labor.
If implemented, the agency said the rule would improve workers’ ability to advocate for better working conditions by expanding and clarifying existing anti-retaliation protections, according to a news release.
In comment to the agency about the proposed rule, the Northwest Horticultural Council of Yakima, Wash., said the H-2A wage is 19% above that state’s minimum wage, not counting the substantial costs of housing and transportation.
The H-2A program in Washington has grown from 30,0000 positions in 2021 to nearly 39,000 in 2023, the group said.
“Unfortunately, during this same period in which use of the H-2A program has grown so substantially, we have seen multi-generation family farmers lose their operations at an alarming rate, causing unprecedented consolidation within the industry,” the group said. “With labor constituting 60-70% of a grower’s input costs, the single biggest contributor to these growers losing their farms is the significant, non-market-based increases to the cost of labor driven by the terms and conditions of the H-2A program. Making the H-2A program more accessible and workable for growers of all sizes is paramount to halting this trend.”
Here’s some of The Packer’s other coverage of the H-2A issue.
Senate committee hears voices for H-2A reform (May 31)
From farm to table, immigrant workers get the job done. At least for now.
That was the theme of a May 31 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where lawmakers heard impassioned testimony from growers and worker advocates about needed steps to preserve necessary workers in the U.S. food supply chain.
Ganaz develops program to improve efficiency for H-2A worker recruitment (Nov. 29)
Ganaz says it has developed a new web platform to improve efficiency and transparency in the recruiting of potential H-2A agricultural guest workers.
The web tool allows employers or farm labor contractors to view profiles, photos, videos and skills assessments of potential H-2A workers in Mexico to make more informed selections, said Hannah Freeman, co-founder and CEO of Ganaz.
Grower group expresses alarm over new H-2A wage rule (March 1)
The National Council of Agricultural Employers said it has “grave concern” over the publication of a new wage rule for use in the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker Program.
The Department of Labor regulation, which started its rule-making journey in July 2019, was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 28. The final rule is effective March 30.
In a news release, the NCAE said the new regulation would not only continue the Department of Labor’s historic misuse of the USDA’s Farm Labor Survey to manufacture wage rates in the H-2A program disconnected from the market for agricultural labor in the U.S., but it would also inject additional new wage rates into the program similarly disconnected from agriculture to compensate some workers for routine on-farm chores.
