Fair Wages for Farmworkers Act

Key Points

• This bill changes how the government calculates the minimum pay for H-2A workers, who are temporary foreign farmworkers brought to the U.S. for seasonal work. It requires the Labor Department to use state-level data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to set these wage rates.
• The goal of these wage rules is to make sure that hiring foreign workers does not lower the pay for local American farmworkers. By using state-specific data, the government aims to set pay rates that better match what people are actually earning in a specific region.
• The bill also speeds up the hiring process by allowing the Department of Homeland Security to start reviewing worker applications while the Labor Department is still doing its checks. Currently, these steps often happen one after the other, which can cause delays for farmers who need help quickly.
• Farmers who rely on seasonal labor would be the most affected, as this could change their labor costs and how quickly they can get workers into the fields. It also impacts the thousands of foreign workers who come to the U.S. each year for agricultural jobs.

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