Here's where you can tell the DOL "Hey, don't cut the minimum wage for H2A farm workers. It's there TO PROTECT AMERICAN FARM WORKERS."
"American farm workers?"
Yeah! 30-50% of US farm workers are US citizens! Another ~20% are green card holders.
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The Trump administration DOES cave to pressure. Especially when "here's how this hurts US workers" can be brought to bear.
The logic behind cutting the H2A minimum wage was "Farmers can't afford to pay it."
If that were true, H2A hiring wouldn't be exploding like this.
The surge in hiring H2A workers isn't just about "getting away from undocumented labor." It's also about replacing US workers.
Since its inception, H2A has had a high minimum wage- precisely to prevent competition with US workers.
And that's what Trump just got rid of.
"That's not a big deal, how many people actually work on farms anyway?"
About 2 million! Just hired hands, not including people who live on & own family farms!
The US also has about 2 million waiters/waitresses and about 2 million truck drivers.
We just don't realize HOW MUCH of our economy is farms & farm workers- because they're "out of sight, out of mind."
So for context, here are some jobs that hire fewer people than farm work!
-secretaries
-software developers
-factory workers
-restaurant cooks
-construction workers
-elementary school teachers
-security guards
-restaurant managers
-day care workers
-carpenters
-lawyers
-electricians
-car repair guys
-bartenders
-police officers
-fast food cooks
--IT managers
-nurses
-hairdressers
-insurance agents
-pharmacists & pharmacy techs
-real estate agents
-welders
-Farmers- there are 836,100 people in the US whose main job is running a farm. (And in the DOL stats, "farmers, ranchers, & other agricultural managers" are "management." Nice to see DOL understood the assignment.)
-animal caretakers, non-farm
-school bus drivers
-dental assistants
-correctional officers
-HVAC techs
-investment analysts
-bank tellers
-firefighters
-mail carriers
-sports coaches & scouts
-sales reps
-engineers
-clergy
-physical therapists
-graphic designers
-insurance claims handlers
-bakers
-radiology techs
-data scientists
-IT admins
-HR managers
-masons & concrete installers
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