Prevailing Wages
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. When it comes to ag labor, there are plenty of challenges farmers have to deal with, including wages.
I asked Kate Tynan, Vice President at the Northwest Horticultural Council, what is the biggest challenge they’re facing today? …
TYNAN … “The biggest one on our mind here in Washington state, although this is becoming a bigger issue in other states as well, which is something we foresaw, and frankly I think it’s going to be helpful to us, not helpful to others but helpful to us that the pain is being felt elsewhere, is reforming the prevailing wage system within the H-2A program.”
This is different, Tynan says from the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, which is based on a survey set at the federal level …
TYNAN … “What the prevailing wage is set on is a survey that’s conducted by a state where the state has broad discretion to look at everything from defining what a crop activity is and what that wage is going to be covering to, you know, what area or what geographic area that’s going to cover.”
As for reform similar to the AEWR changes, Tynan says the administration has been involved …
TYNAN … “They have told us they are planning on doing additional rulemaking, to make reforms to the H-2A program. They’ve been very candid about that all the way up to the level of the Secretary of Labor. And we are hopeful that the prevailing wage is high on their list and that’s what we’re continuing to push. That should be a high-priority issue for them to address.”
Tynan says it’s pretty complicated but needs to be done for the sake of the industry.
