Sponsors (10)
The bill raises and standardizes pay for experienced H‑2A agricultural workers and recognizes employer-provided housing as pay, improving incentives and predictability, but it increases labor costs and administrative burdens and may shortchange workers in high‑rent areas or prompt employers to alter hiring.
H‑2A agricultural workers with experience or formal training will receive higher mandated pay (Skill Level II), creating stronger financial rewards and incentives for training and retention among farm workers.
H‑2A workers who are provided employer housing will see that housing value is converted into an hourly compensation credit, increasing overall take‑home pay where housing is offered.
States, employers, and program administrators gain a predictable, standardized method for valuing housing credits by using existing HUD fair market rent data, improving consistency in wage-setting across jurisdictions.
Farm employers and agricultural operations will face higher labor costs from mandated higher wages and housing credits, which could translate into higher food prices for consumers or reduced hiring of H‑2A workers.
H‑2A workers in high‑rent states may be undercompensated because the housing credit is capped at 30% of the wage, so the converted hourly credit may not reflect actual local housing costs.
Employers and program administrators will incur additional administrative and compliance burdens from annual housing-value calculations and skill-level classifications, increasing paperwork for employers and enforcement workload for the Department of Labor.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires DOL to set two H‑2A wage tiers by skill and add an annual state-specific hourly housing-value adjustment based on HUD 4‑bedroom FMR, capped at 30% of the wage.
Changes how the Department of Labor sets minimum wages for H‑2A temporary agricultural workers by requiring a two-tier wage structure based on skill (entry vs. experienced/trained) and an annual, state-specific hourly housing-value payment tied to HUD’s 4‑bedroom fair market rent (capped at 30% of the applicable skill-level wage). The wage tiers must pay Skill Level II higher than Skill Level I and the housing adjustment must be calculated each year for every State.
Introduced March 26, 2026 by Theodore Paul Budd · Last progress March 26, 2026