Several federal lawmakers from Michigan are asking Congress to freeze hourly wage increases for the country’s H-2A program.
Eight of Michigan’s 13 Congressional delegates signed on to a letter asking to stop this year’s increase for H-2A workers, including all of the state’s Republicans and two Democrats — U.S. Reps. Elissa Slotkin, D-Lansing, and Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township.
The H-2A program allows U.S. farmers to hire temporary, seasonal labor from foreign countries. Michigan is in the top 10 states when it comes to hiring the most H-2-A workers each season, employing more than 15,000 workers annually — particularly on the west side of the state where specialty crops like fruit are grown.
Farmers must provide transportation, housing and hourly wages to workers, and those hourly minimum wages are recalculated annually. This year’s hourly minimum wage for H-2A workers in Michigan is $18.50.
John Kran, National Legislative Counsel for the Michigan Farm Bureau, says wage increases have been unstable and unpredictable, and this year’s is too high.
“Farmers have been pretty upset about this because they don't have the predictability and stability they need to make decisions to plan two years out, let alone five or 10 years out,” said Kran.
He says Michigan’s Congressional delegates heard that complaint and penned the letter, led by U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Holland.
BY THE NUMBERS
• Michigan hired an estimated 15,000 H-2A workers in 2022 and 2023.
• In 2022, they earned around $15.37 per hour. In 2023, $17.34 per hour.
• Under the increase, they're expected to make $18.50 in 2024.
• Michigan ranks 6th among the states for its use of H-2A workers.
“If you're in a specialty crop industry, like vegetables, fruit, nursery, [or] greenhouse that has seasonal labor needs, it could be upwards of 40% of the cost of production alone in labor,” said Kran. “So even small shifts in labor costs from one year to the next can really have an impact on the overall bottom line in the business.”
The letter asks the House Committee on Appropriations to freeze the H-2A wage at January 2023’s rate, reversing this year’s $18.50 per hour minimum in Michigan.
“That’s $8 an hour higher than the state minimum wage, plus considerably higher than the federal minimum wage,” Kran said.
But advocates for farmworkers say the compensation is calculated fairly, especially considering agricultural work is different from other wage labor.
“These agricultural jobs under the H-2A program are otherwise exempt from many of the basic protections that are offered in other industries,” said Kara Moberg, the managing attorney for Farmworker Legal Services. “For example, there is no requirement that agricultural workers be paid overtime, even though many agricultural workers work well above the 40 hours per week.”
Moberg says hourly minimum wages for the program don’t capture the full picture.
“There is still a lot of failure to pay wages to workers [like] having workers work longer hours than what is being reported and paid,” Moberg said. “Oftentimes [H-2A visa holders] have to pay up front for their travel expenses to get to the U.S.”
Moberg says workers also often pay illegal recruitment fees up front in their home countries. She argues higher wages, like the increase this year, help alleviate some of those burdens and attract essential labor to Michigan farms.
John Kran with Michigan Farm Bureau says lawmakers will continue to raise awareness and ask for a pause in wage increases. He says they’re hoping for “time to come up with a longer term plan,” including a way to calculate more stable, steady calculations in hourly wage bumps.
