Western Growers criticizes final H-2A wage rule
| Western Growers, which represents produce growers in California, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, on Monday issued a statement critical of the adverse wage rate rule for farmworkers that the Labor Department has finalized. “American farmers are already stretched to the limit by rising costs and shrinking margins. With economic blinders on, the administration will now mandate that farmers pay higher wages to H-2A workers and domestic workers in corresponding employment,” said Western Growers President & CEO Dave Puglia. “Increasing wages by regulatory order will force farmers to cut back on plantings in the U.S. and increase their farm operations in Mexico and other countries where wages are a fraction of the H-2A wage. No one in the administration would want those things to happen, but these are the entirely foreseeable consequences of economically myopic policy decisions like this.” |
–The Hagstrom Report
