A U.S. federal district court has ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully undercut the wages of U.S. farm workers, striking down most of an interim final rule issued by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). U.S. District Judge Kirk Sherriff held that the agency’s new wage formula for temporary agricultural guest workers was arbitrary and capricious, finding that three of four challenged components violated federal law.
Federal Court Strikes Down Trump Administration Farmworker Wage Rule
Federal law requires the Labor Department to ensure that hiring temporary foreign farmworkers under H-2A visas does not depress wages for domestic farmworkers performing the same jobs. For decades, the department calculated the minimum required wage, known as the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, using the average wage for all farmworkers in a given region. Last October, citing the discontinuation of a federal survey long used for this purpose, the administration issued an emergency rule to overhaul the wage floor calculation without going through the standard public notice-and-comment process.
Judge Finds Rule Components Arbitrary and Lacking Public Input
Judge Sherriff ruled that while switching data sources on an emergency basis was justified because the old survey had genuinely been discontinued and the department faced a year-end deadline, the rest of the rule went beyond what was necessary. The Joe Biden appointee found that the agency lacked good cause to skip public input for most of the changes and failed to reasonably consider whether its methodology fulfilled its statutory duty.
The invalidated rule split farmworkers into two skill tiers and set the wage floor for the lower tier at the 17th percentile of all wages instead of the regional average—a tier the department projected would cover 92% of H-2A workers. The court noted that the agency borrowed this 17th-percentile figure from the H-1B visa program, where only about 60% of workers fall into the bottom two tiers combined, without explaining why it was appropriate for an agricultural system where the bottom tier covers nearly all participants. The judge also rejected a provision requiring an entire job to be classified under whichever duty consumes more than half a worker’s time, even when it meant a higher-paying task like driving a heavy truck was paid at a lower rate.
Impact on Farmworkers and Potential Backpay
The interim rule had cut farmworkers’ wages by up to $7 per hour depending on the state, with the DOL estimating it would annually transfer $2.46 billion in wages from workers to employers. The lawsuit challenging the policy was filed by 18 individual farm workers, the United Farm Workers (UFW), and the UFW Foundation. Supporting amici briefs were submitted by five former Secretaries of Labor, 13 state attorneys general, and lawmakers including Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff and Representative Zoe Lofgren.
The court’s decision orders the DOL to promptly publish new wage rates developed under a methodology consistent with the ruling. Additionally, the agency must inform employers that they may be responsible for backpay for workers covering the period from the date of the decision until a revised lawful wage rate is established. A decision on whether to order backpay for the period between the order and the issuance of new wage rates was deferred until new rates exist for comparison.
Reactions From Labor Advocates
Crisanto Serrano, a farmworker in Sunnyside, Washington, and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, stated that local workers face difficulties finding employment as growers increasingly hire H-2A workers who live on property. Us workers have to stay united,
Serrano said, expressing hope that the decision would protect local jobs and wages in the Yakima Valley.
Teresa Romero, President of the United Farm Workers, emphasized that the government must move quickly to issue new legal wage rates that protect domestic workers. The government must move quickly to issue new, legal, wage rates that protect the jobs and wages of local farm workers, and employers must be held accountable for paying back any difference between the new legal wage and the illegal wage rates still in effect,
Romero said. Erica Lomeli Corcoran, chief executive officer of the UFW Foundation, added that the decision halts the transfer of wealth from workers to agricultural corporations and provides a much-needed safeguard for families relying on fair compensation.
