Farmer's H-2A Costs to Drop by up to $2.5 Billion Per Year

The Labor Department announced changes to the calculation of adverse effect wage rates (AEWRs)

Oct 02, 2025

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man in gray hoodie and blue denim jeans kneeling on green grass field during daytime — Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

The Labor Department announced yesterday that their calculations of the adverse effect wage rates (AEWRs) will now be based on the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics instead of the Agriculture Department’s Farm Labor Survey.

USDA had already announced that they were scraping the Farm Labor Survey, so this was not unexpected, but the savings due to using the BLS survey is expected to save US farmers who employ H-2A workers about $2.5 billion per year.

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