@article{Castillo:329068,
      recid = {329068},
      author = {Castillo, Marcelo and Martin, Philip and Rutledge,  Zachariah },
      title = {The H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers Program in 2020},
      address = {2022-08-30},
      number = {1962-2022-1835},
      series = {EIB-238},
      pages = {50},
      month = {Aug},
      year = {2022},
      abstract = {The H-2A program allows U.S. agricultural employers who  anticipate labor shortages to be certified by the U.S.  Department of Labor (DOL) to employ guest workers. Over the  last decade, the number of jobs certified to be filled by  H-2A workers increased from 75,000 in 2010 to 275,000 in  2020. By 2020, H-2A workers accounted for an estimated 10  percent of the average employment on U.S. crop farms. This  report uses all H-2A employer applications that DOL  certified in fiscal year (FY) 2020 to show how H-2A  employment varies by State (and by counties within the top  sponsor States), industry, employer size, type of farm  employer requesting the workers (labor contractor,  individual farmer, or growers association), and type of the  third party filing the application on behalf of employers  (H-2A agent, lawyer, growers association, or farmers  themselves). The report estimates that employers paid  $3.5  billion in wages to H-2A workers in FY 2020. The Farm  Workforce Modernization Act approved by the U.S. House of  Representatives in March 2021 proposed to freeze the  Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), which is a minimum wage  for H-2A workers, for 1 year. We find that an AEWR freeze  might have saved employers of H-2A workers an estimated  $169 million a year. Because freezing the wages of H-2A  workers could affect the wages of U.S. domestic workers,  the wage savings due to AEWR freezes are of interest for  H-2A employers as well as for agricultural employers that  only hire non-H-2A workers.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/329068},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.329068},
}