Recent NY Times Article on Changing Ag Worker Demographics Highlights Need for H2A Program

As captured in the recent New York Times article, Illegal Immigration Is Down, Changing the Face of California Farms, agricultural labor demographics have changed considerably resulting in less available domestic workers to fill on-farm jobs in agriculture. The Times reporter used the Salinas Valley as his focus for this article. However, the Grower Shipper Association of Central California (GSA) would like to provide some additional clarity regarding why ag employers use the H2A program, along with more information about the program’s requirements.

As the Times article points out, an aging population in the ag workforce and the lack of an influx of new entrants into the local agricultural labor pool have resulted in a labor shortage. To meet the needs of producing fresh produce, employers have turned to the federal H2A guest worker visa program to capture interest and fill available jobs from interested applicants. Here, employers aren’t choosing guest workers over domestic workers. They’re utilizing the H2A program out of necessity.

As is required under the program, the employer first commits to finding available labor domestically. If there is inadequate labor available to grow and harvest the crops, then farm employers can utilize the legal guest worker H2A visa program.

Under the program, the employer must pay a wage rate that has been established by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). This wage must be applied similarly to domestically employed workers. In California’s Salinas Valley, the H2A base wage is higher than the state’s minimum wage and therefore establishes a higher minimum base wage that applies to both the H2A guest worker and the local worker.

Ag employers who hire workers through the H2A program only employ these temporary workers for a few short months. Taking into consideration the housing markets, it would be daunting for guest workers to attempt to find housing on a temporary basis. This is part of the reason providing housing is a requirement of employers. Other H2A legal requirements:

Employee housing must be inspected and meet DOL, state and local safety standards..
Employers must either provide three meals per day for each worker or the housing must have kitchen facilities and employees are given a food allowance..
It should be noted that the issuance of visas to guest workers during labor shortages is not exclusive to agriculture. Other industries also rely on foreign visas, including technology, tourism, construction, manufacturing and health care.