Farm labor has been an ongoing issue for the ag industry. With Republicans in control of both the House and Senate beginning January 3rd and President Trump returning to the White House on January 20th, American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall says he’ll be pushing lawmakers on Capitol Hill next year to revise the H-2A Visa program.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to work with this Administration to find a solution to that problem,” says Duvall.
The H-2A program allows U.S. employers to temporarily hire nonimmigrants from different countries for agricultural services throughout the year. However, the program has not been modernized since 1986. The applications and job contracts for H-2A workers may only last for up to ten months, which means those who need labor in the livestock and dairy industries are constantly having to hire and retrain new staff.
In addition, H-2A workers in Indiana must be paid the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), which is $18.18 an hour. Meanwhile, the state’s minimum wage rate is $7.25 an hour. The AEWR is the regional weighted average hourly wage rate for field and livestock workers combined, as measured by the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) annual Farm Labor Survey of non-supervisory farm and ranch workers. To complicate matters further, H-2A workers in other states may also be paid the Prevailing Wage, which is the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific occupation in the area of intended employment. Indiana does not have its own state Prevailing Wage laws.
“We know that this President-elect is concerned about having people that can work, not just on farms, but with small businesses across America—coupled with his deportation policy and coupled with securing the border—all of those things that we are going to be monitoring and help him understand how it is affecting agriculture so we don’t do any damage to our food security system here in our country because that’s what keeps us free.”
Duvall tells Hoosier Ag Today he plans to bring solutions to lawmakers to fix the farm labor issues.
“We need a workable program that has a wage rate that is set so that a farmer can afford to maintain those jobs, but also treat the men and women well who work on our farms,” says Duvall.
“[We also need to] lower the regulation part of it because the DOL (U.S. Department of Labor) went crazy with regulations around our farm labor programs,” he says. “We also need year-round workers because a lot of agriculture works day-in and day-out all year long, so we need to lower those regulations so it can be more workable and sustainable for our farmers.”
Most of all, Duvall says he’s encouraged that the previous gridlock among lawmakers over revising farm labor policies may come to an end.
“The excuse over the years has been, ‘We’re not going to do anything until we’ve secured the border.’ This President says he’s going to secure the border—that takes that excuse away, so that makes me excited that there might be a great opportunity to fix this problem.”
CLICK BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s radio news report, which includes C.J. Miller’s conversation with American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall.
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