‘They keep us in business,’ Alabama farmers praise guest-worker wage decrease – Alabama Daily News

Alabama farm leaders are celebrating a new federal rule decreasing the wages agriculture-related businesses must pay people hired through a guest worker program.
Advocating for changes to the H-2A program to make it more affordable for Alabama growers has been a priority this year for the Alabama Farmers Federation. Under the previous rule, the federally mandated minimum hourly rate since 2021 increased 34% to $16.08 this year.
“Frankly, we’re getting priced out of it,” Phillip Hunter, a Talladega County tree nursery owner and the Shelby County Farmers Federation president, told Alabama Daily News recently.
Hunter Trees began using the visa program in 2022 when it was facing a post-Covid-19 labor shortage.
Working for the tree wholesaler can be a tough, tedious job with tasks in the heat of summer and cold of winter. Phillip and his brother and co-owner Will Hunter couldn’t find enough employees locally who wanted to do it. So, they turned to H-2A visas that allow them to bring in guest workers for up to 10 months at a time.
It’s worked well and for the last three years, most of the 16 workers initially hired have returned.
“Those H-2A workers are very important,” Hunter said. Without them, Hunter Trees, which employs about 20 to 25 local residents at any given time, would have to downsize its operations.
“(Guest workers) keep our domestic workers employed, they keep us in business,” he said.
Hunter, who is also part of the American Farm Bureau Federation, has been to Washington, D.C., four times in the last year advocating to improve and keep the program financially accessible to growers.
The new interim Adverse Effect Wage Rate rule that went into effect last week sets two minimum hourly rates, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The previous rule, designed so wages paid to guest workers don’t undercut local salaries, was based on the USDA Farm Labor Survey, which was discontinued in August.
In Alabama, entry-level workers will now receive $10.05 per hour, after a $1.20 housing deduction. More skilled workers will receive $13.75 after the housing deduction. Locally hired workers must receive the same rates.
“Farmers rely on legal guest workers to fill the gap when the local workforce can’t meet their needs,” Alfa President Jimmy Parnell said recently. “Unfortunately, rule changes during the Biden Administration made the H-2A program increasingly costly and complicated.
“The rule announced (this month) is another step toward fixing the H-2A program by applying common sense to wage calculations.”
The most recent federal data shows about 145 employers in Alabama with 1,820 guest workers.
Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture Rick Pate called the new rule a game changer for farmers struggling to find labor for physically demanding jobs. Without employees, production stops.
Pate said he often repeats something he heard about the visa program years ago.
“As Americans, we have a decision to make,” he said. “Foreign workers are going to pick our fruits and vegetables. We have to decide if they’re going to pick them in our country or their country.”
Employers pay for travel to and from workers’ home countries and housing. The $1.20 per hour housing deduction is new.
Workers under contracts as of last week will still be paid the previous, higher rate, but new contracts will have the lower rate, explained Blake Thaxton, executive director of the Alabama Fruit and Vegetable Association and director of the Alabama Farmer Federation’s Greenhouse, Nursery and Sod Division.
He said most farmers and growers hire the same guest workers year after year and may pay more than the new minimum rate.
Hunter said he’ll likely pay his returning workers above the minimum rate. The new rule gives employers the flexibility to make that decision themselves.
Thaxton said Alfa will continue to advocate for caps on increases in wages from year to year, which he said could still happen under the new formula. A cap would help employers plan for increases.
Comments on the rule will be accepted for 60 days at www.regulations.gov.

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