{
  "id": 16873633,
  "title": "Trump’s farmworker pay cut moved $2.5 billion a year from workers to growers. A judge says it’s illegal, and back pay could follow",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/28/trumps-farmworker-pay-cut-moved-2-5-billion-a-year-from-workers-to",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-28T07:29:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/10/28/trump-h2a-farmworker-pay-cut-ruling-back-pay-deadline/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The U.S. Labor Department has until December 30 to revise the formula that determines wages for nearly 400,000 seasonal farm jobs. A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully lowered pay for foreign guest workers through a cut in H-2A visa seasonal labor rates. If the department misses the deadline, wages will revert to the Biden administration's rates, and growers who paid the lower wages may owe back pay. Roughly one-sixth of the U.S. agricultural workforce consists of temporary foreign workers who come to the country to fill jobs their employers claim no Americans can or will do. Most of these jobs are in labor-intensive crops like melons, apples, and tomatoes, which machines struggle to harvest. The program has grown in recent years as domestic farm labor has dwindled and immigration enforcement has tightened. H-2A certifications reached a record 398,258 positions in fiscal 2025. Among the problems associated with this growth, the Labor Department found violations in 84% of its investigations of H-2A employers between fiscal 2018 and 2023, most often for pay issues. In 2021, federal prosecutors in Georgia charged 24 individuals with running a trafficking operation that exploited dozens of H-2A workers in conditions described as \"modern-day slavery.\" The wage floor for H-2A workers historically has been set based on an average farmworker wage in each state or region, derived from the USDA's Farm Labor Survey. However, in August 2025, the USDA discontinued the Farm Labor Survey. Subsequently, on October 2, the Labor Department issued an interim final rule that uses a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of mostly nonfarm employers instead. This rule categorized H-2A jobs into two pay tiers, with entry-level wages set at around the 17th percentile, a tier expected to cover 92% of jobs. The department also lowered wages further to account for housing provided to H-2A workers. In California, for example, the minimum H-2A wage dropped from $19.97 per hour to the state minimum wage of $16.90. The Labor Department estimated the new formula would shift approximately $2.46 billion annually from workers to employers. H-2A visas have been increasingly sought by growers as the domestic labor pool has shrunk and immigration enforcement has become stricter. In August 2025, the USDA stopped using the Farm Labor Survey as a basis for setting the minimum wage for H-2A workers, and the Labor Department subsequently issued an interim rule relying on a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey. This change led to a significant cut in wages for some H-2A workers, with the minimum wage in California falling from $19.97 per hour to the state minimum wage of $16.90. The United Farm Workers union, along with the UFW Foundation and 18 farmworkers, sued the Labor Department over the new rule in November 2025. On August 26, U.S. District Judge Kirk Sherriff ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, stating that the department had failed to consider whether the rule met its legal duty to protect U.S. workers and had improperly skipped public comment. Sherriff left the rule in place and instructed the department to promptly develop a replacement. The Labor Department then issued a warning to employers on September 2, stating that they may owe workers the difference between the current and new rates once a revised formula is in place. The department has until December 30 to issue a new rule, after which it will expire either way. The ruling has sparked criticism from the National Council of Agricultural Employers, which argues that the interim rule provided stability against \"runaway wage mandates.\" Meanwhile, the UFW Foundation and California Governor Gavin Newsom have called for higher wages for H-2A workers, with Newsom signing a law last month that sets a $19.75 hourly minimum for these workers and the workers they work alongside, effective January 1.",
  "summary": "The Labor Department has until Dec. 30 to replace the rule covering nearly 400,000 seasonal farm jobs. If it misses the deadline, pay snaps back to Biden-era rates.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}