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Fact Sheet: Proposed H-2A Wage Legislation Would Unfairly Cut Farmworker Pay

  • Farmworker Justice strongly opposes the misleadingly-named “Keep Food Local and Affordable
    Act of 2021” (S.3134 and H.R.5887), which was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Tillis (R-NC),
    Boozman (R-AR), Cruz (R-TX) and Cornyn (R-TX) and in the House by Rep. Steube (R-FL).
    The bill would require the Department of Labor to freeze the required wage rates for the H-2A
    temporary agricultural worker visa program at 2021 levels in the majority of states. As
    farmworker wages have been rising, this would essentially lower the wage that H-2A and
    corresponding U.S. workers can expect to earn in 2022. Farmworkers – whose jobs are already
    among the lowest paid in the country – do not deserve a pay cut.