Protecting H-2A Workers’ Rights and Welfare

Cesar L. Escalante and Carmina E. Taylor

Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, 2024, vol. 39, issue 01

Abstract: Traditionally, the agricultural sector has depended on nonresident, foreign-born workers for farm job positions usually avoided by domestic workers. These positions require taxing manual labor performed under harsh work environments that pose significant risks to workers’ health (Luo and Escalante, 2017a). Nonresident foreign-born workers not only provide relief to employers’ job sourcing difficulties but also allow their farm business employers to realize cost savings, as some of them (usually undocumented immigrants) are paid at relatively lower (below fair market) wage rates. Additionally, such foreign workers are given few to no benefits, including health insurance coverage crucial to their risk-laden work situations (Luo and Escalante, 2017b). Analytical evidence indicates that the cheaper cost of certain foreign labor inputs could distort market wage determinations (Rutledge, Richards, and Martin, 2023), an anomaly rectified by the H-2A program, the farm sector’s legitimate alternative for employing contractual foreign workers.

Keywords: Labor; and; Human; Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaeach:344741

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.344741

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