California Attorney General Rob Bonta today led a coalition of 17 attorneys general in opposing the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) interim final rule that implements a significant reduction to the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), effectively lowering the wages for workers employed under the H-2A program. This new rule abandons reliable farm-specific data, arbitrarily creates new lower-paying job categories, and deducts housing costs from the wages paid to H-2A workers. These changes harm the public’s interests and exacerbate the roots of farmworker poverty for both H-2A workers and domestic farmworkers alike.
“As the son of parents who joined Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta to defend farmworkers, I’m driven by the same commitment to protect these often-exploited workers, including those in the H-2A program,” said Attorney General Bonta. “DOL’s new rule will take advantage of agricultural workers by quickly attempting to backfill a farming labor force that was largely weakened by the President’s very own immigration policies. California is one of the largest producers of agricultural products in the nation, and the workers who support that industry deserve to know that we have their backs.”