Dec 10, 2020

Labor survey that determines AEWR reinstated by USDA

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) intends to reinstate the Agricultural Labor Survey which was suspended on Sept. 30.

According to a Dec. 10 news release, NASS will mail the questionnaires and collect data immediately for the survey previously scheduled for October 2020.  The report, to be published on Feb. 11, 2021, will include data for the July and October 2020 reference dates, including annual average wage rates, hired workers and hours worked.

Public announcement of the reinstatement of the federal statistical program is available per requirements of the Office of Management and Budget in a Federal Register Notice.

Information about the farm labor program is available here.

Agriculture farmworker advocacy group Farmworker Justice issued a press release protesting the original Sept. 30 acton by President Donald Trump’s administration canceling USDA’s Farm Labor Survey of agricultural employers that is used by the Department of Labor to set the main minimum wage under the H-2A agricultural guestworker program.

The notice of revision stated it would not collect data in October for the past two quarters of the 2020 fiscal year. In the absence of the USDA wage survey results, the Department of Labor would not have the survey results that, under the H-2A program regulations, it uses to set the “adverse effect wage rate” for 2021.