Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5172, which will phase in overtime pay in agricultural employment and protect agricultural employers from being sued for retroactive pay, passed the Senate in a last-minute floor vote 37-12 in early March.
At the time it was passed, proponents from both sides of the aisle acknowledged the bill was still a work in progress.
Since then, some lawmakers have walked away from the negotiating table, content with the restrictive amendments added during the Senate floor debate, despite their previous assurances to continue perfecting the bill in the House.
The bill currently uses existing wage rates as justification to phase in an overtime pay structure across all agriculture sectors in Washington state. The bill would not allow any flexibility for changes in seasonal demand nor take into consideration the farmworkers the bill is purportedly aimed at helping. Looking at the justifications for an inflexible approach to farm work in Washington state, the arguments don’t add up.
Washington state consistently ranks in the Top 5 in the number of H-2A workers hired on an annual basis. The federal H-2A temporary farmworker visa program allows farmers and ranchers who have advertised for workers for 60 days with no success, to hire farmworkers on a temporary visa from outside the U.S. for up to 10 months annually. In 2020, Washington’s farmers and ranchers hired approximately 25,000 H-2A workers and are on pace to do the same in 2021.
The H-2A program is designed to encourage hiring local labor by requiring an Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR). The AEWR is a mandatory minimum wage set by the federal government and paid to all H-2A workers. Washington state is tied for the highest AEWR in the country at $16.34 an hour for this year, a significant increase from the $15.83 of last year.
Because of the number of H-2A workers employed in our state and since farmers and ranchers who employ H-2A workers are required to pay local farmworkers at the same rate, the AEWR functions as a de facto minimum wage. In fact, the current average farmworker minimum wage in Washington state is $17 an hour; at 40 hours a week, that is $2,720 in gross wages a month versus $2,190 at the state’s current minimum wage of $13.69 an hour.
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For more information:
Pam 
Lewison
Washington Policy Center
Tel.: +1 (509) 380 - 8045
Email: plewison@washingtonpolicy.org