U.S. Department of Labor issued H-2A wage rule UFW says cut farmworker pay up to $7 an hour, bypassing required rulemaking procedures

On October 2, 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration issued an interim final rule (90 FR 47914) overhauling the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) methodology used to set minimum wages for H-2A agricultural guestworkers. The rule took effect the same day it published, bypassing the standard notice-and-comment rulemaking process required for most regulatory changes; DOL instead invited public comments after the fact, due by December 1, 2025.

The rule replaced regional wage data from USDA's discontinued Farm Labor Survey with state-level Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, split into two skill tiers, and added a new "housing adjustment" that reduced cash wages to account for employer-provided housing — a benefit employers are already required by law to provide. DOL placed roughly 92 percent of H-2A positions in its lowest wage tier, set at the 17th percentile of wages for that occupation rather than the average. According to the United Farm Workers, the changes cut many farmworkers' pay by up to $7 an hour; DOL itself estimated the rule would transfer $2.46 billion annually from workers to employers.

Updates

2026-05-13 — Federal judge denied UFW's bid to block the wage rule while litigation proceeded [2]

Ruling on United Farm Workers' motion for a preliminary injunction and a stay under 5 U.S.C. § 705 in United Farm Workers v. U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. District Judge Kirk E. Sherriff (E.D. Cal.) denied the request, finding most plaintiffs had not shown they were likely to see their own pay cut under the new rule and that the one plaintiff who did show a wage reduction had not demonstrated the irreparable harm required for injunctive relief. The wage rule remained in effect while the case proceeded toward summary judgment.

2026-08-25 — Federal judge ruled the wage rule unlawful [2, 3]

Ruling on cross-motions for summary judgment in United Farm Workers v. U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. District Judge Kirk E. Sherriff (E.D. Cal.) held that DOL's tiered wage system, its new housing adjustment, its choice of wage survey, and its job-classification methodology all failed to reasonably show the rule would satisfy the Department's statutory duty to prevent H-2A hiring from adversely affecting U.S. farmworkers' wages, and found DOL bypassed required rulemaking procedures without adequate justification. The court stopped short of vacating the rule immediately, citing disruption to the agricultural labor market, but ordered DOL to develop a replacement wage methodology, retained jurisdiction over the case, and warned employers they could face backpay liability if the replacement rates come in higher than what they are currently paying.