in effect
This is an interim final rule from the U.S. Department of Labor, effective October 2, 2025, that changes how the agency calculates the minimum hourly wage — called the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) — that employers must pay when they hire temporary foreign agricultural workers under the H-2A visa program. The AEWR exists to prevent those foreign workers from undercutting wages for U.S. workers doing the same jobs.
The rule replaces the USDA Farm Labor Survey (FLS) — which has been the primary wage data source since 1989 and has been discontinued — with the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey as the basis for all AEWR calculations. Instead of a single flat wage rate per state for all agricultural workers, the rule creates two skill-based wage tiers for each occupation category, so that jobs requiring higher qualifications carry a higher minimum rate. The most common field and livestock worker occupations are grouped under five Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes (reduced from six), and all other agricultural occupations each get their own AEWR set at two skill levels. The rule also adds a downward adjustment factor to the AEWR for H-2A workers who receive free employer-provided housing, treating that housing as a form of non-cash compensation. Wage rates will update on the BLS publication schedule rather than the prior USDA calendar.
Agricultural employers who use the H-2A program must calculate and pay wages under the new two-tier, occupation-specific system and apply the housing adjustment when they provide free housing to workers. H-2A temporary foreign workers and U.S. agricultural workers in the same occupations are directly affected because the AEWR sets the wage floor that governs what both groups are paid under certified job contracts.