Migrant guestworkers form the backbone of the industry’s personnel, as they have for generations. Braceros (i.e., guestworkers, from the Spanish for “strong arm” or “manual laborer”) were initially introduced to make up for labor shortages caused by World War II.
Yet the Bracero program was ended by the federal government, chiefly because of the incorrect belief that migrant workers were taking away jobs from Americans.
“Bracero exclusion failed to raise wages or substantially raise employment for domestic workers in the sector,” notes one 2018 study published in the American Economic Review.
Nevertheless, the concern about taking jobs away from U.S. workers continues, as shown by the present-day H-2A program. Growers can recruit foreign labor, but they must prove they have attempted, and failed, to secure domestic workers for the requested positions first.
Housing
Employers must also provide housing for H-2A workers.
Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) state: “Employers must provide housing at no cost to H-2A workers and to workers in corresponding employment who are not reasonably able to return to their residence within the same day.
“If the employer elects to secure rental (public) accommodations for such workers, the employer is required to pay all housing-related charges directly to the housing’s management.
According to Philip Martin, a professor at the University of California at Davis, who is the nation’s leading expert on farm labor, “Today, farm labor contractors account for almost half of H-2A job certifications, and many house guest workers in motels, using bunk beds for four workers per room.
“More apartment-style housing is being built that costs employers $25 or more per night in coastal areas,” he continues. “Many farmers want Congress to allow them to pay a housing allowance of $1 to $2 per hour to H-2As rather than provide housing.”
This allowance, however, wouldn’t add up to much: even $2 per hour would amount to $16 for an eight-hour day, much less than the housing cost of $25.
Some employers tout their housing arrangements.
According to the company’s website, Salinas, CA-based Tanimura & Antle, Inc. BB #:115075 opened the doors or its Agricultural Employee Housing in 2016, designed “to provide clean, safe, and affordable housing for our seasonal employees and to address the labor shortage impacting Monterey County.
“Located on the same property as Tanimura & Antle’s main office, our Spreckels Crossing housing facility consists of 100, two-bedroom, two-bathroom fully furnished units. The employee-only residential housing complex can house up to 800 employees (up to eight employees per unit).”
Amenities, the website says, include security, free wifi, laundry facilities, a game room, convenience store, recreational areas, and more.
Pay rates
According to a recent report from USDA’s Economic Research Service entitled Adjusting to Higher Labor Costs in Selected U.S. Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Industries, “Farm labor wage rates—measured by real farm earnings—increased faster than nonfarm rates (16 percent compared with 5 percent) from 2000 to 2019.”
These rates are expected to increase in the future. The report explains: “Farm labor costs are rising due to declining unauthorized migration, increasing state minimum wages, and some states removing overtime-pay exemptions for farm workers.”
Ian LeMay, president of the California Fresh Fruit Association in Fresno, CA, points out that California’s mandatory minimum wage is $15.50 per hour.
“Most of our members are paying well over the minimum wage,” he says, but the rate does provide what he calls a “bottom threshold,” which in turn “creates a hurdle when we try to compete in the domestic market.”
For example, LeMay says, “Peaches are grown in 43 states. When another state is operating around the federal minimum wage”—which is $7.25 an hour—“our members paying the state minimum wage continues to be a concern.”
California has also removed a long-standing exemption for agriculture from the compulsory overtime pay after 40 hours of work per week.
With the new threshold, LeMay says, “It’s too difficult to work a large amount of overtime hours,” and this has caused “some frustration within the employee community.”
In April 2022, Oregon joined California and Washington in eliminating overtime exemptions for farm workers.
This is an excerpt from the cover story in the November/December 2022 issue of Produce Blueprints Magazine. Click here to read the whole issue.
