A celery field in the Salinas Valley is harvested. Credit: Ag Alert
June 3, 2026 - By Caleb Hampton - After years of rising labor costs, some farmers have seen relief during the past several months, with those who hire foreign guestworkers benefiting from a Trump administration rule implemented last October.
The new rule changed how the H-2A program’s minimum wage, called the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, is calculated, effectively lowering it in California from $19.97 to the state minimum wage of $16.90.
According to research by Zachariah Rutledge, assistant professor and extension specialist at Michigan State University, farmers in California could save up to $100 million this year if every employer were to reduce pay for guestworkers to the state minimum wage.
Overall farm labor costs in California are about $18 billion a year, including $655 million in wages paid to H-2A workers, according to federal data.
Last month, Rutledge presented research showing that in the first six months after the wage rule was implemented, about 70% of H-2A employers in California adjusted pay to match the new minimum of $16.90 an hour.
He said that while some employers may opt to pay more than the minimum to retain workers or boost morale, he expects that as the year progresses, “more employers will move down to that state minimum wage” to take advantage of the new rule.
However, that’s only if the rule survives multiple challenges it faces in California.
In December, the United Farm Workers filed a lawsuit, claiming the new H-2A wage rule is illegal. On May 13, a federal court denied the union’s motion for a preliminary injunction, allowing the rule to remain in effect as the case plays out.
Meanwhile, legislation written as a countermeasure passed the Assembly last month. Assembly Bill 2646, authored by Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, would establish a state minimum wage of $19.75 for agricultural guestworkers. As with the H-2A program, that wage would also apply to “corresponding” local workers hired by the same employer.
Krell said last month on the Assembly floor that the legislation, which is supported by UFW, is intended to bring financial relief to farmworkers struggling to make ends meet.
“This is a bottom line wage that’ll help our farmworkers who bring so much to California,” she said.
Bryan Little, senior director of policy advocacy and federal affairs lead at the California Farm Bureau, which opposes the bill, said the proposed state law is worded such that it would apply to a broader group of corresponding local workers than does the federal H-2A wage law.
“It’s going to wind up in some areas being effectively a super minimum wage for agriculture,” Little said, adding that the expense to farmers could raise food prices.
To become law, AB 2646 would need to pass the state Senate and be signed by the governor.
Nationwide, the H-2A program has grown rapidly in recent years, with the number of workers more than doubling in the past decade, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Experts project that within the next few years the number of H-2A workers in the U.S. will surpass the size of the historic Bracero program at its peak of around 450,000 workers in the late 1950s.
Use of the H-2A program is especially high in southeastern states such as Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, while California’s use of guestworkers remains comparatively small. As of last year, H-2A workers comprised about 20% of the U.S. farm workforce but just 5% of farmworkers in California, according to federal data.
Little said the program is nonetheless important for farmers in the state as it reduces the risk of untimely labor shortages for growers of perishable commodities.
“It provides an emergency source of labor if you don’t have enough people to do what you need to do at any given time or any given place,” he said.
Last month, researchers at an annual farm labor conference at the University of California, Davis, said California could be a focal point of future expansion of the visa program.
The state’s labor-intensive specialty crops make it a national hub for farm work. And while California is currently home to many experienced farmworkers, research has shown that for the most part their children are not entering the field, nor are other young Americans.
Those factors mean the state is a likely “growth sector for H-2A,” said Philip Martin, professor emeritus of agricultural and resource economics at UC Davis.
Martin said that as local farmworkers age out of the workforce, the void will likely be filled by some balance of foreign guestworkers, automation and imported produce. He said policies such as the recent change to the H-2A minimum wage could influence that balance.
“We’ve got different factors working, and they interact with each other,” he said. “If you lower the wages for migrant H-2A workers, that’s an incentive to hire more. If you subsidize mechanization, you’re likely to get more of it.”
For now, Little said it remains unclear whether the rule change will immediately result in greater numbers of H-2A workers coming to California.
Many farmers are struggling from years of depressed commodity prices. And despite the new H-2A rule, the program remains costly for employers, who on top of paying minimum wage must provide workers with food, housing and transportation.
“That, obviously, is an increased cost,” Little said. “There is no reason why you would employ H-2A workers if you had any other reasonable alternative.”
Caleb Hampton is an editor at Ag Alert. He can be reached at champton@cfbf.com.
California Farm Bureau works to protect family farms and ranches as part of a nationwide network representing more than 5 million Farm Bureau members. Learn more at www.cfbf.com or follow @cafarmbureau on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, or Facebook.
Source: California Farm Bureau
