one percent of workers used Social
Security or disability insurance. What’s
more, very few farm workers were able to
take advantage of “social safety net”
federal programs like Medicaid, Food
Stamps, or the Women, Infants and
Children program.
Many studies have shown that
Americans pay less for their food than
citizens in most other industrialized
nations. However, large-scale farm
employers argue that higher wages and
benefits will force them to raise prices to
an unacceptable level. According to
author Eric Schlosser, “Maintaining the
current level of poverty among migrant
farm workers saves the average American
household $50 a year.”
Whether a $50 annual increase in
food prices for a household is truly un-
acceptable to keep migrant workers out
of destitute poverty is at best unclear.
Advocates for farm workers are quick to
point out the disparity between wages in
large scale agriculture. While the average
farm worker earns roughly $7,500 a year,
the CEO of Archer Daniels Midland
received over $3 million in salary and
bonuses in 2005, as well as an additional
$8 million in stock options. Critics of
these wage disparities point out that
because the H-2A Visa program that gov-
erns the temporary legal status of these
workers prevents them from collectively
organizing, there is little incentive for
farm employers to increase wages for
field workers. This fact may also explain
why the H-2A guest worker program
expanded so rapidly during the 1990s. In
North Carolina, for example, the number
of H-2A guest workers rose from just 168
in 1989 to 10,500 by 1998.
According to the U.S. Department of
Labor, roughly 75,000 temporary workers
were employed in 2007 nationwide under
the H-2A program, and that an estimated
600,000 to 800,000 immigrants are work-
ing illegally on American farms. In 2007,
the AgJOBS Act of 2007 would have
granted amnesty to illegal immigrants
working in the agriculture industry. The
Bush administration responded by pro-
posing a “streamlining” of the program’s
regulations. According to the administra-
tion, wages required under the program
were actually higher than prevailing
wages, and the application process was too
complex. According to AFL-CIO presi-
dent John Sweeney, “The Department of
Labor will hurt both immigrant and
U.S.–born labor alike if it goes ahead
with its plan to strip a number of workers’
rights from the H-2A agricultural guest
worker program.”
On the other hand, critics of the pro-
gram argue that these changes are needed.
According to the conservative Heritage
Institute, the formula used to determine
worker wages is flawed, leading temporary
farm workers to receive pay that is higher
than the wages paid to farm workers not
enrolled in the program. By changing the
pay formula, employers would have the
right to hire workers for less money. TheHISPANIC AMERICA TODAY 217Mexico, 76%
United States, 23%
Central America, 2%
Other, 1%Place of Birth of Agricultural Workers in the U.S.
Note: Due to rounding, figures do not add up to 100%.