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by Don Jenkins, Capital Press

Farm-employer associations see an opening to persuade the U.S. Department of Labor to stop setting farmworker wages, a practice they say severs labor costs from commodity prices.  

A federal judge in Louisiana vacated in August the Labor Department’s method for calculating wages for foreign seasonal farmworkers. Two days later, the department announced it will come up with a new approach.  

Farm groups challenged the old method, complaining the department surveyed prevailing wages in non-farm industries to set farmworker pay. Under that approach, wages rose unconnected to farm income, according to farm groups.

Farmworker wages disconnected from economic reality are forcing the U.S. to be more reliant on imported food, National Council of Agricultural Employers CEO Michael Marsh said.  

“We’re hopeful the Labor Department will reconnect the wages to the market,” he said. “My hope is they simply let the market dictate what the wages are.”  

The Labor Department sets the H-2 wage to prevent foreign workers from suppressing the wages of U.S. farmworkers. In a state such as Washington, which has a large number of foreign seasonal workers, the H-2A wage influences wages paid U.S. workers.  

The H-2A wage varies by state or region. The wage in Washington and Oregon is $19.82 an hour, second-highest in the country after California’s $19.97. The wage goes up annually.  

Commodity prices are set by the free market, but labor costs aren’t, said Enrique Gastelum, CEO of the Worker and Farmer Labor Association, one of the larger recruiters of H-2A workers in the country.  

“What do you do with an industry that’s a price-taker and can’t pass on costs? That’s the question we have to ask ourselves,” he said. “If we keep squeezing this industry, there will be no farmwork.”

State minimum wages, currently $16.66 in Washington, should be the baseline, with pay rising from there as farmers bid for labor and pay bonuses, Gastelum said. “We just need to take a completely fresh look at this,” he said. “The free market will sort things out.”  

The Trump administration may be open to considering it, he said. “You have an administration that realizes farming is one of the major backbones of the U.S.”  

In the past 20 years, farmworker wages have increased 105%, while private-sector wages overall have risen 70%, according to an August report by the Congressional Research Service.  

The report cited three reasons for the rise in farmworker pay: One, there are fewer Mexican-born farmworkers. Two, wages for low-paying, non-farm jobs are rising. Three, H-2 wages pull up wages for U.S. farmworkers.  

Farmworker advocates are seeking higher wages, particularly by requiring farmers to advertise and pay piece rates set by the Labor Department.  

A skilled blueberry picker, in good conditions, can make up to $300 in eight hours, according to Edgar Franks, political director for Familias Unidas por la Justicia, a farmworker union.  

A good cherry picker can easily make $35 an hour, and skilled apple pickers can fill two bins at $30 each in an hour, he said in recent comments to the Labor Department.  

Only the slowest U.S. workers or workers from rural Mexico would be satisfied with a job that pays less than $20 an hour, according to Franks.