A North Carolina U.S. Senator and his colleagues have introduced a bill that would revert the minimum wage farmers can pay seasonal workers to the December 2023 rate through the end of the 2025 growing season.
Senator Thom Tillis said what’s called the Adverse Effect Wage Rate in North Carolina rose 6% in January, and with net farm income projected to decrease by more than 25% this year, farmers in North Carolina and across the country are struggling to make their planting decisions for this crop season.
Tillis said the H-2A agricultural guestworker program has been an option of last resort for farmers to hire legal and reliable workers to plant, grow, and harvest their crops, but the wage they are require to pay those workers has become unsustainable.
Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said farmers care about the people who choose to work on their farms, and that includes paying them a fair wage, and this bill takes a step toward creating a wage standard that benefits farmers and employees while ensuring farms can stay afloat.
Read the bill -- https://www.tillis.senate.gov/services/files/2A6787D1-9772-43AB-BF27-9C9D9B36F88F
