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By Don Jenkins, Capital Press

H-2A wage scale changed by Trump administration

A federal judge has rejected a motion by the United Farm Workers to suspend a new wage scale for seasonal foreign farmworkers that the union claims will lower pay for U.S. farmworkers.

Although the wage scale took effect in October, the UFW has failed to show it or domestic farmworkers have been harmed, U.S. District Judge Kirk Sherriff in Fresno, Calif., ruled.

Without evidence of harm, Sherriff, appointed by President Biden, said he couldn’t issue the nationwide injunction sought by UFW pending the outcome of the union’s lawsuit against the wage scale.

The union submitted statements from farmworkers in Washington, California and Texas who said they feared pay cuts. None of them, however, reported actual cuts.

The ruling doesn’t prevent UFW from going forward with its lawsuit. But it was a victory for farm groups that asked Sherriff to deny UFW’s motion.

An injunction would have been another blow to financially stressed farms, said Enrique Gastelum, CEO of the Worker and Farmer Labor Association, a Washington-based farm labor contractor. “That would have been a major upheaval,” he said.

Wage scale

The Labor Department sets minimum wages for foreign workers to prevent the H-2A program from undercutting pay for U.S. farmworkers. The department said last fall escalating H2-A wages put U.S. agriculture at a competitive disadvantage.

The Trump administration’s new wage scale lowered hourly wages, allows farms to deduct from paychecks for housing and to pay a lower wage for jobs that do not require experience. Under the new wage scale, a job that paid $19.82 an hour in Washington last year will pay $17.33 this year.

“From a moral, good-feeling perspective, rolling back farmworker pay doesn’t feel good, but this is a course correction,” Gastelum said.

The UFW contends the new wage scale for foreign farmworkers will lead to pay cuts for U.S. farmworkers, too.

“Lowering the wages of the H2-A guest worker program to undercut the wages of American farm workers is plainly illegal,” UFW President Teresa Romero said in a statement.

“We will continue to demonstrate this in court and look forward to a final ruling,” she said.

Sherriff’s preliminary ruling should give farmers confidence the new wage scale will be in place for the entire growing season, National Council of Agricultural Employers CEO John Hollay said.

Hollay said he doubts the new H-2A wage scale will lower pay for U.S. farmworkers. Farmers still have incentives to hire U.S. workers, he said.

“People want to bring back people who have been on their farms before and have been trained,” Hollay said.

The Labor Department certified 398,258 job openings for foreign farmworkers for the 2025 growing season, including 34,560 in Washington.

Washington’s recruitment of H-2A workers is running well ahead of last year’s pace, but Gastelum attributed that to a rule change that allows farmers to apply for workers earlier.

He said he anticipated a slight uptick in H-2A recruitment because of the new wage scale and a labor shortage exacerbated by immigration enforcement.