While the details still need to be nailed down, the Oregon Farm Bureau says proposed changes to the federal H-2A policy represents good news for farmers in their state who have been struggling for some time now.
Austin McClister, Director of Communications for the Oregon Farm Bureau, explains his overall take: “We say 69% of farms are operating in net cash loss. What this does is it decreases your labor costs by upwards of 20%, which is what we’re looking at for that H-2A program. So, we have that AEWR, the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, sitting at like $19.82 an hour. This is going to drop that down. It’ll never be lower than the state minimum wage, but it’s going to drop it down to a point where, for some counties, you’re going to see $15.25 an hour for that H-2A wage rate.”
The Labor Department’s proposal also looks at dividing jobs by skill levels, which McClister says could also benefit farmers. He adds that the H-2A program has become so expensive over recent years that many producers don’t use the program unless they have to. “You have to provide housing, you have to provide transportation,” he reminds. “When you do the math on what that looks like, and, say, housing is 30% of your income and transportation is another 10%, if you add that on top of this wage rate . . . some farmworkers are making upwards of $27 an hour. That’s what the farmers are paying them to use this program. So, I don’t know if it increases the use of the H-2A program because the program itself is so expensive.”
When it comes to local workers, McClister says the proposed changes pose no threat. He says farmers are still required to hire domestic workers over H-2A workers.