H-2A wage rates rising more than 4% nationally in 2025

The minimum wage rate that farmers are required to pay H-2A workers is rising by an average of 4.47% nationally to $17.74 per hour for 2025, according to the Labor Department.

The new adverse effect wage rates published in a Federal Register notice Monday vary from a low of $14.83 an hour in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi to $19.97 an hour in California and $20.08 in Hawaii.

The average percentage increases vary widely as well, according to an analysis by American Farm Bureau Federation economist Samantha Ayoub. Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama will see a 10% increase in 2025, while California's rate will rise by just over 1% over 2024. 

"After five years with the highest AEWR, California will fall to second with an hourly wage of $19.97, following only Hawaii, where farmers will be required to pay $20.08 per hour, up 7.2% from 2024," Ayoub wrote in her analysis.

The AEWR is supposed to prevent employment of H-2 workers from depressing wage rates for domestic labor. 

The new AEWR rates were effective as of Monday in some states in accordance with a farmworker protection rule finalized in April. But litigation over that rule has resulted in an injunction of its enforcement in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The effective date of the new rates in these states will be Dec. 30. 

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The Dec. 30 effective date also applies to Miles Berry Farm and members of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, who are involved in the lawsuit. 

The new rates for field and livestock workers are as follows: