H-2A cutbacks
Working Economics Blog from Economic Policy Institute. New estimates show farmworkers stand to lose $4.4 to $5.4 billion annually under DOL’s updated Adverse Effect Wage Rate
The Trump administration will cut the pay of all farmworkers by reducing the minimum wages paid to workers filling seasonal agricultural jobs in the H-2A visa program. By lowering wage rates implemented by the Department of Labor (DOL), we estimate that over 350,000 H-2A farmworkers could see their annual wages cut by a total of $2 billion or more—between 26% to 32% of their wages. These significant wage cuts for H-2A workers will put downward pressure on the wages of U.S. farmworkers, reducing their total annual wages by about $3 billion—up to 9% of their total wages. Total losses in pay for all farmworkers will range from $4.4 to $5.4 billion—roughly 10% to 12% of their total wages—according to our estimates.
The H-2A visa program is used to fill seasonal and temporary jobs in agriculture, after employers go through a (mostly pro-forma) process to prove that they could not find an available U.S. worker to hire. With no annual limit on the number of workers that can be hired, H-2A has been the fastest-growing U.S. work visa program—nearly tripling over the past decade to 352,682 workers in 2024, according to our estimates. The vast majority of H-2A workers are employed on crop farms—picking fruits and vegetables—and the average duration of an H-2A job is roughly six months.
