By Clint Thompson
Next year’s increases of the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) is further evidence transparency is needed from the Department of Labor about how it justifies substantial pay increases for H-2A workers.
Georgia and Alabama are experiencing 9% increases to $16.08, while Florida’s new AEWR is estimated to be $16.23, a 10% increase from the $14.77 rate in 2024. The increases defy logic, explains Chris Butts, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.
“It outpaces inflation, and it outpaces every indicator that any of our growers have to look and see what wages are. It doesn’t make sense, and we’ve gone to these agencies and asked for explanations. We still don’t have a thorough understanding of how the survey is used and how that data is used to come up with the AEWR,” Butts said. “All our growers know is to expect close to a double digit increase every year with no explanation as to how we got here.
“In Georgia I think we had 44,000 H-2A workers this year. You’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars with zero explanation and seemingly zero correlation with what’s happening, the economic realities in our rural communities; there seems to be no connection between that and the pay. That becomes the de facto pay rate in that area. It’s unsustainable.”
The Farm Labor Survey helps the Department of Labor determine the AEWR, the minimum wage for H-2A workers in every state. Alabama, along with South Carolina, is experiencing the same increase as Georgia.