WASHINGTON — Foreign farm workers who come to the United States legally could be paid less under changes to government regulations aimed at getting companies to stop hiring illegal immigrants.
The Labor Department planned today to propose changes to the foreign agriculture worker program, among them how the base wages for H2-A visa holders are determined. Streamlining the hiring process for H2-A visa holders could help turn employers away from hiring illegal workers, officials said.
More than half of U.S. farm workers admit on Labor Department surveys that they are not legally authorized to work. Some groups believe it’s actually about 70 percent.
Right now, the base pay for H2-A agriculture workers is set by the Agriculture Department’s Farm Labor Survey and varies by state. Within a state, the pay is the same regardless of what job a worker performs.
However, the Labor Department wants to use the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment Survey, which would allow officials to consider what workers do and their skill levels. It also would allow officials to divide the country into more than 530 areas and to pay wages appropriate to each area.
“Because of the increased precision, there are going to be wages that will likely decrease,” said Leon Sequeira, an assistant secretary for policy at the Labor Department. “There also are wages that are going to increase.”
The H-2A system requires that above-average wages, called the adverse effect wage rate, be paid to those workers.
In 2007, the highest adverse effect wage rate was $10.32 in Hawaii and the lowest was $8.27 in Arizona. In North Carolina, where the largest number of H-2A visas are issued, the adverse effect wage rate was $9.02.
The federal minimum wage is $5.85 an hour. The highest state minimum wage is in Washington state at $8.07 an hour.
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