The Trump administration is preparing another attempt to reform how H-2A minimum wage rates for farmworkers are set, a move that could offer some relief to farmers grappling with high labor costs and ongoing uncertainty about the availability of undocumented workers. At issue is whether the administration will return to the strategy it pursued in 2020, as President Donald Trump was leaving office, or adopt a new approach for determining the adverse effect wage rates farmers must pay H-2A workers.
Farm groups argue that wage levels based on USDA surveys have led to unsustainable increases in labor costs for operations that rely on H-2A workers. They note the Department of Labor is not legally required to base the wage rates on the USDA survey. Still, the law requires the agency to ensure that wages and working conditions for U.S. workers in similar jobs are not undermined by the hiring of foreign guest workers under the H-2A program.
The outcome of this effort will be closely watched across farm country, where rising labor costs have become one of the largest financial pressures on producers.
