Labor Department tells judge it’s striving to set wages by deadline
Labor Department tells judge it’s striving to set wages by deadline
By Don Jenkins, Capital Press
The U.S. Department of Labor said it will work diligently to adopt new wages for seasonal foreign farmworkers by Dec. 30, though it remains unhappy with the court-set deadline.
In a report to U.S. District Judge Kirk Sherriff in Fresno, Calif., the department said Oct. 22 it was consulting with the USDA and Department of Homeland Security on setting wages for foreign farmworkers who fill about 400,000 U.S. farm jobs.
The new pay scale also will directly affect wages for U.S. farmworkers who must be paid the same as their foreign co-workers, and indirectly influence wages on farms without foreign farmworkers.
Sherriff ruled in August that the current wages are too low. The department asked for up to a year to adopt new wages, but Sherriff gave it four.
The department said it still objects to the timeline, but assured Sherriff that it will try to meet it.
Despite the uncertainty over wages, Washington farmers are still showing an interest in hiring foreign workers for next year, Worker and Farmer Labor Association CEO Enrique Gastelum said.
The association helps farms navigate the Labor Department’s H-2A farm labor program. “People are still proceeding, as is,” Gastelum said. “People are struggling to find workers.”
The Trump administration lowered H-2A wages, agreeing with farm groups that the cost of employing and housing foreign farmworkers was too high. The Labor Department estimated the 2026 wages would save employers $2.5 billion a year.
The United Farm Workers successfully challenged the wages and says it will seek to have higher wages applied retroactively.
For now, Sherriff has left the current wages in place, but said he will consider ordering back pay. The back-pay period could cover the months between his ruling in late August and when the department adopts new wages.
If the Labor Department fails to meet the Dec. 30 deadline, wages will automatically reset to wages the Biden administration set, according to Sherriff’s order.
The H-2A wage in Washington and Oregon is currently $17.13 an hour. Gastelum said he has told farmers to expect the new wage to be about $19 an hour.