Source: UC DAVIS RURAL MIGRATION NEWS, 12/30/21


Farm employers may be certified to recruit and employ H-2A guest workers if they satisfy two major requirements: recruitment and adverse effect. The recruitment test requires employers to try and fail to recruit US workers, and the adverse effect test requires employers to offer and pay H-2A and similar US workers an Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) that is higher than the federal or state minimum wage.

Recruitment and housing were the major H-2A issues debated during the 1980s when the H-2A program was created by modifying the previous H-2 program in IRCA in 1986. California farmers feared that union supporters may respond to their recruitment ads and vote for a union under the state’s labor law, leaving them with a contract even if the workers moved on to another farm. Few California farmers had the housing that was required for H-2A workers, so they requested that Congress approve a free-agent alternative to the H-2A program so they would not have to undergo supervised recruitment and provide housing to H-2A workers.

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