Joe Petrocco, a fourth-generation vegetable grower in Brighton, Colorado, says the spring planting season comes with mixed pressure: soaring input costs and a welcome drop in labor expenses. Federal changes to the H-2A temporary farmworker wage calculation will reduce pay in many places by a third, in some cases up to $5 cut per hour, easing a portion of farmers’ cost burdens even as fertilizer and diesel climb.
Petrocco and other growers face higher fertilizer and fuel bills tied to international tensions, and a dry winter has tightened water supplies for irrigation. Still, lower mandated wages for H-2A hires reduce a key line-item for labor-intensive vegetable operations that hire seasonal help for planting and harvest.
The administration finalized rules that lower the minimum wage floor for H-2A workers and allow employers to effectively pass some housing costs to employees, where housing had previously been required to be provided free. Labor advocates say the change will transfer income from workers to growers; the Economic Policy Institute estimates H-2A wage reductions will cost workers between $4.4–$5.4B lost annually.
Program details
The H-2A program remains an uncapped temporary visa route for seasonal agricultural labor, and employers must still show hires won’t adversely affect U.S. workers. Recruiters and growers note the program’s structure — contracts generally lasting six to nine months, reimbursement for travel, daily meal compensation and no path to permanent residency — makes it the main legal option for many large-scale seasonal hires. The visas come without family authorization, and recipients typically work long weeks under guaranteed minimum hour rules.
Wage impacts vary by state because the new calculation still incorporates local wage benchmarks and cost-of-living factors. In Georgia the new lowest rate could fall to about $10.77 an hour, a drop of roughly $5.56 in some cases, while California’s new floor declines by around $3 to roughly $16 an hour. Charlottesville-based recruiter masLabor estimates its placements will see an average reduction near $2.19 an hour; some workers shifted to higher-paying states but most continued to accept U.S. seasonal jobs.
Grower and advocate reactions
Grower groups and individual farmers welcomed the revised rules as relief from rapidly rising farm labor costs, arguing previous mandated wages had become unsustainable. National Council of Farmer Cooperatives leadership called the changes a correction to government-set thresholds; several growers said lowering wage floors could delay or reduce automation investments. Worker advocates, unions and farm labor organizations have filed suit seeking to block the wage rule changes, arguing lower H-2A wages will also depress pay for domestic farmworkers.
At Petrocco Farms the combined pressure of input costs and water limitations means roughly one-third of acreage will likely be left fallow this summer, cutting seasonal H-2A needs to about 150 workers from a typical 300. In Colorado those H-2A hires will earn the state minimum wage of $15.16 this year, which Petrocco notes is still considerably higher than typical pay in workers’ home regions but lower than last season’s rates for returning laborers.
H-2A recipients generally work between 45 and 50 hours a week with a guaranteed minimum of 35 hours; employers remain responsible for specified benefits and travel reimbursement. The pace of planting and harvest this season, and decisions by some employers to keep returning workers at higher pay to retain experienced crews, will determine how broadly farms rely on the lower wage floors during 2026.
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