2025’s Latest Hit to Farm Labor Costs

By Samantha Ayoub

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2023 reclassification of some H-2A workers’ job titles continues to push wages higher, with another increase on the way this year per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 2024 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), which was released in April.

In 2023, DOL changed its longstanding Adverse Effect Wage Rate (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.

New Wages

While 96% of H-2A workers are still classified as farmworkers, graders and sorters, packers and packagers, or agricultural equipment operators – the classifications set by the FLS – some alternative job classifications have become more prevalent since the 2023 methodology was set.

The five most common disaggregated occupations at the end of fiscal year 2024 were heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (1.5%), construction laborers (0.6%), first-line supervisors of farmworkers (0.1%) and shuttle drivers (0.5%). Farm equipment mechanics (0.2%) have also climbed into the top 10 occupations in year-to-date fiscal year 2025 positions. The OEWS does not survey farms. Wages in this survey reflect workers in these occupations in the larger economy, like chauffeurs in New York City or long-haul truckers driving Amazon trailers from coast-to-coast. The additional qualifications and permits needed for these jobs in other industries mean that their wages are often much higher – sometimes more than $10 per hour higher.