SPOKANE — Temporary foreign farmworkers in Washington state face wage cuts of more than $3 an hour under policy changes by the Trump administration earlier this month for those with temporary visas to work in agriculture.

The White House announced regulatory changes Oct. 2 to the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, which sets the minimum wage employers must pay temporary foreign agricultural workers under the H-2A program. The change followed the August cancellation of the Farm Labor Survey, which previously provided the data used to determine employment and wage estimates.

The AEWR will now be calculated using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, which collects wage and employment information across a wide range of occupations and indu

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