The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) urges Congress to pass legislation to freeze the 2023 Adverse Effect Wage Rate, or AEWR. AFBF says the rate distorts labor costs for farmers across the country who hire nearly 400,000 employees through the H-2A program.
The bipartisan Farm Operations Support Act temporarily resets the AEWR at 2022 levels, providing much need wage relief to farm families and giving Congress an opportunity to deliver a fair and reasonable solution. Farm Bureau says the 2023 AEWR rule missed the mark by such a wide margin that farmers in some states experienced required wage increases of more than ten percent after smaller increases last year. The AEWR has significantly outpaced increases in the national average wage for most workers in America for most of a decade.
AFBF President Zippy Duvall adds, “Farmers are committed to paying their employees a fair wage, but the new AEWR rule used flawed data to reach a flawed conclusion.”
- Full text of the 2023 Adverse Effect Wage Rate bill can be viewed here.
- 2023 Adverse Effect Wage Rate map can be viewed here.
The NAFB contributed this report.
Listen to Sabrina Halvorson’s program here.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.