The Adverse Effect Wage Rate that farmers are required to pay H-2A workers is rising by an average of 4.5% nationally to $14.62 per hour this year, with some western states seeing significantly higher increases.
The Labor Department released the list of wages in a Federal Register notice scheduled for publication on Thursday. The announcement came later than normal this year after a federal judge nixed a Labor Department rule that would have changed the methodology for determining the rates and ordered USDA to continue to collect data for its Farm Labor Survey (FLS), on which the wages are based.
The 4.5% hike comes on top of a 6% increase in 2020. The American Farm Bureau Federation said wages have increased 20% over the past five years.
Using the wage information collected by the FLS, AFBF economist Veronica Nigh and congressional relations director Allison Crittenden said in an analysis that “California, which is its own region, had the largest increase — jumping $1.28/hour, or 8.7%, above 2019. Meanwhile, wages in the Delta region (Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi) had the smallest increase — 5 cents/hour, or 0.4%, above 2019.”
All but three (Delta, Southeast and Lake) of the 18 regions in the FLS exceeded the 2.6% increase in 2020 for private industry workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index, Nigh and Crittenden said. “Hourly AEWR wages now exceed $12/hour in all regions except the Delta and Southeast.”
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“While a 4.5% single-year increase is sizable, the 2021 AEWR jump comes on the heels of several years of considerable wage rate increases,” they wrote. “Over the last five years, the national average AEWR has increased by 20%. Again, however, regional wages are what really count. From this perspective, depending on the region, wages have increased between 9% and 35% over the last five years.”
California’s AEWR is now $16.05/hour. The next-largest increase is in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, where the rate rose 6.8% to $14.55. The rate in the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas increased 6% to $15.89, and the rate in Iowa and Missouri went up to $15.37, a 5.4% jump.
The full list of AEWRs for 2021:
- Alabama $11.81
- Arizona $13.67
- Arkansas $11.88
- California $16.05
- Colorado $14.82
- Connecticut $14.99
- Delaware $14.05
- Florida $12.08
- Georgia $11.81
- Hawaii $15.56
- Idaho $14.55
- Illinois $15.31
- Indiana $15.31
- Iowa $15.37
- Kansas $15.89
- Kentucky $12.96
- Louisiana $11.88
- Maine $14.99
- Maryland $14.05
- Massachusetts $14.99
- Michigan $14.72
- Minnesota $14.72
- Mississippi $11.88
- Missouri $15.37
- Montana $14.55
- Nebraska $15.89
- Nevada $14.82
- New Hampshire $14.99
- New Jersey $14.05
- New Mexico $13.67
- New York $14.99
- North Carolina $13.15
- North Dakota $15.89
- Ohio $15.31
- Oklahoma $13.03
- Oregon $16.34
- Pennsylvania $14.05
- Rhode Island $14.99
- South Carolina $11.81
- South Dakota $15.89
- Tennessee $12.96
- Texas $13.03
- Utah $14.82
- Vermont $14.99
- Virginia $13.15
- Washington $16.34
- West Virginia $12.96
- Wisconsin $14.72
- Wyoming $14.55
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