By Clint Thompson
The interim final rule (IFR) revising the methodology used to determine H-2A’s adverse effect wage rate (AEWR) was a win for specialty crop growers. The industry will score an even bigger victory once the rule becomes permanent.
John Hollay, president and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE), discussed the interim final rule and what his organization has been doing to help make that dream become a reality.
“No. 1, we want the department to make it permanent first and make sure we can actually move to make it final rule because that’ll provide a lot of clarity that still isn’t out there, on how the rule will actually be interpreted, particularly by the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage Hour Division. They do the enforcement on the back end,” Hollay said. “Step No. 2 is getting Congress to act. We’ve been pushing for action for the first time in 40 years. I think we’re in a better place to achieve that today for a couple of reasons.”
Under the new interim final rule, the DOL will base AEWRs on state-level wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey rather than the USDA Farm Labor Survey, which was previously used. Hollay explained why he is more optimistic about the process, more than six months removed from when the IFR was announced.
Optimistic About Long-Term Reform
“No. 1, obviously, the Trump administration has made it a priority to secure the border and that has enabled, particularly the republicans in congress, to want to look at this challenge, that we’ve been facing for 40 years, without the concern of a political toxicity of border politics,” Hollay said.
“The other piece is, I really think H-2A has gotten to a place where it now occupies a fifth of the workers that we’re talking about in agriculture. When you look at individual commodities or individual regions, it’s a much more significant part of the workforce in those places. I think between the border situation not being resolved but certainly being addressed and maintained, people are allowed to look at this and the economic and food security issue that it is. To allow one-fifth of our food economy to be balanced on a piece of legislation that was passed in 1986 when I was 4 years old, seems silly.
“I think it’s given Congress the opportunity that it’s now the time to actually secure some of these reforms for the long term. We are bullish on our chances this time around, again, because of the environment that we’re facing, from a security standpoint and from an economic standpoint.”