Department of Labor Reviews Wage Rates for H-2A Workers

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has announced its intention to review the current wage rates for seasonal foreign workers in the H-2A visa program in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). This change in methodology will alter the hourly Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWR) as determined within the H-2A program. You can find the full news release here. Efforts have been made to make changes to the H-2A program over the past several Administrations and in Congress. The H.R. 1603 Farm Work Modernization Act of 2021 passed the House of Representatives in March, as well as a Final Rule on AEWR that was published at the end of the Trump Administration in November 2020 and pulled back at the beginning of the Biden Administration in 2021.

Comments on the DOL’s current NPRM are due on or before January 31, 2022.