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Court vacates disaggregation rule; USDA halts labor survey

A federal court in Louisiana recently vacated a portion of the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2023 Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) rule that required unnecessarily high wages for workers on some farms.

In 2023, DOL changed its longstanding AEWR methodology to set distinct hourly wages for any job description with duties the department believes go beyond the six farm occupations included in USDA’s Farm Labor Survey (FLS).

Since farmworkers, particularly those on small farms, perform a variety of job functions, this rule, known as the “disaggregation rule,” has resulted in some farm positions being reclassified to higher wage categories.

“Farm Bureau is pleased that the Department of Labor and a federal judge recognized that elements of the 2023 labor rule created an unfair wage structure that forced farmers to pay employees for jobs they may not usually perform,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said. “Farmers care about the men and women who choose to work on their farms, and they support paying good wages for their employees, but the rule did not align compensation with work performed.”

Duvall noted that AFBF has long advocated for reforms to the H-2A guestworker program to ensure workers are treated fairly, and that farmers can afford to fill their labor needs.

Following the court ruling, the USDA announced in a Sept. 3 Federal Register notice that it has discontinued the Farm Labor Survey (FLS), which served as the basis for the AEWR wage calculation methodology.

The USDA characterized the survey as outdated and outdated. In the notice, the department noted that there is not statutory requirement for the survey and that other, more appropriate data resources are available, specifically the Department of Labor’s Occupational Employment Wage Statistics (OEWS) program. While FLS collected data only from farmer, the OEWS gathers information from farm labor contractors.

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