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The minimum wage in California is $10.50 an hour for employers with more than 25 employees, it is $10 an hour for small employers. It will not be $15 an hour until 2023.
Thank you for the correction.
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And you are wrong..citizens do not want 'those jobs' and requiring e-verify for agricultural labor simply doesn't work. Here is some reading material for you:
The article stated they were not getting the interest from illegals to fill the positions that were previously filled by illegals. I did not say citizens wanted the jobs. Who wants a back breaking 12 hour a day seasonal job for less than minimum wage when you can get an easier permanent job for the same pay.
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"Five years ago, growers in Georgia and Alabama watched helplessly as more than $500 million worth of produce rotted in the fields because there was no available labor for harvest. Both states had passed stringent anti-illegal immigrant legislation. Both quickly rescinded those laws. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal hastily implemented a program giving probationers offsets in their sentences in exchange for time spent as farm laborers. While the initial response was strong, within days all of the ex-convict labor had walked off the job, preferring a return to their original probation agreements to hard labor on farms and in packinghouses."https://southeastproduceweekly.com/2...rants-looming/
Goodman and Eason are just two of an untold number of Georgia farmers facing millions of dollars in losses as crops rot on the vine due to lack of labor for harvest.Farmers face huge losses over migrant worker delays
I am 100% in favor of e-verify, I think it solves the illegal immigrant problem without a 30 billion dollar wall, but the only way that mandatory e-verify would work is if we also implement a guest worker program. H2A could provide the basis for that but as it stands, it's so cumbersome and expensive that farmers hate to use it and can't depend on it to even provide a tenth of the workers they contract for.
So what specifically is cumbersome and expensive that farmers hate to use it?
Midwest Rust Belt snowflakes whine about having to pay more for their fruit and vegetables
Did fruits and vegetable prices go up?
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Originally Posted by shorman
Exactly, every middle aged white male sitting around somewhere in the Rust Belt or flyover country whining about the loss of their manufacturing jobs and the undocumented immigrants keeping them down should be on their way to California right now but we all know they want handouts not jobs.
So they need to sell their homes, move to CA where the cost of living and taxes are high to get a seasonal job that pays 10.50/hr. or less? Why just middle aged white males, what about all the baby mom-mas on welfare?
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Originally Posted by kevxu
I can't imagine that you would get many native-born young Americans to do farm labor, and if you wanted to attract them you would have to offer much higher wages that illegals or migrant laborers get.
And then retail food prices would sky-rocket, and people would begin buying cheaper imported food....and kerplop! there goes the whole point of the thing.
I think its been established that an increase in the percentage the crop worker gets from the product does not have any significant affect on the price of the product. And yes I would imagine most American teenagers would prefer a fast food job making more per hour over picking crops 12 hours/day for less money . And most probably the 12hrs./day would be against child labor laws.
Thank you for the correction. The article stated they were not getting the interest from illegals to fill the positions that were previously filled by illegals. I did not say citizens wanted the jobs. Who wants a back breaking 12 hour a day seasonal job for less than minimum wage when you can get an easier permanent job for the same pay.
So what specifically is cumbersome and expensive that farmers hate to use it?
This is anecdotal as it relates my cousin's experience with H2A but it's consistent with most of the articles you find online. One of my cousins owns a large farm in Central California and she said that no one she knows uses H2A, it's a program that just doesn't work well. You have to prove you can't find local labor and then you have to put in your request far in advance of knowing how many workers you need for the harvest, and you have to provide free housing and transportation for the workers. She said it's common to request 30 or 40 workers and only receive 5 and that's after you have invested in acquiring housing for all 40. She is convinced that the only thing that will work is a guest worker program that does not require providing housing and allows workers to follow the harvest which is what they want to do, and what they have been doing for 100 years.
Just as long as the employers are being ignored for hiring illegal aliens Americans don't have a chance at those jobs even if they tried and I'm not speaking of crop picking as there are unlimited visas for legal, foreign workers.
No there aren't unlimited visas for agricultural workers, the only program is H2A and that program provides foreign labor to an employer who contracts to hire them for a limited time, and is required to provide free housing and transportation to them. There is NOTHING unlimited about it.
We need immigrant labor. Americans can't put their I-phones down long enough to pick a head of lettuce, let alone a bushel of tomatoes.
Guest worker program, with pathway to citizenship. Anything less and the crops rot in the fields and the price of a BLT goes to 25 bucks.
You don't need a "pathway to citizenship" for seasonal agricultural workers. The illegals do these jobs because they are illegal and have no other options. Once other options open up to them (due to citizenship status) they MOVE ON. Then, the next batch of illegals have to be brought in to replace them.
Newsflash: There is ALREADY a "guestworker" program.
UNLIMITED agricultural worker visas. BUT, there's a catch: Farms actually have to provide decent housing, wages and labor protections. And that's just TOO HARD for these whiny farm owners.
Automate, or follow the law. Stop with the "25$ lettuce!!!!!!!" bullcrap. As if your cheap BLT is worth the continuation of modern day slavery in America. Import it if it can't be grown here. We already are suppressing the foreign agriculture markets with our farm subsidies and protectionist policies. Maybe other countries can finally compete.
No there aren't unlimited visas for agricultural workers, the only program is H2A and that program provides foreign labor to an employer who contracts to hire them for a limited time, and is required to provide free housing and transportation to them. There is NOTHING unlimited about it.
Wrong. H2A visas are UNLIMITED, and are explicitly for agricultural workers.
What's wrong with the visas being limited? Isn't agricultural work seasonal? Don't migrant workers, by definition, MIGRATE with the seasonal crops to new areas?
There is also NOTHING WRONG with providing free housing and transportation to ag workers, who are already being underpaid and otherwise subsidized by tax payers (ER visits, kids in schools, etc.).
The reason why it "isn't working" is because nobody is ENFORCING it. Workers and employers will ALWAYS go the path of least resistance. ENFORCE the laws with HEAVY fines and you'll find that magically, the law begins to work.
You don't need a "pathway to citizenship" for seasonal agricultural workers. The illegals do these jobs because they are illegal and have no other options. Once other options open up to them (due to citizenship status) they MOVE ON. Then, the next batch of illegals have to be brought in to replace them.
Newsflash: There is ALREADY a "guestworker" program.
UNLIMITED agricultural worker visas. BUT, there's a catch: Farms actually have to provide decent housing, wages and labor protections. And that's just TOO HARD for these whiny farm owners.
Automate, or follow the law. Stop with the "25$ lettuce!!!!!!!" bullcrap. As if your cheap BLT is worth the continuation of modern day slavery in America. Import it if it can't be grown here. We already are suppressing the foreign agriculture markets with our farm subsidies and protectionist policies. Maybe other countries can finally compete.
I can't imagine that you would get many native-born young Americans to do farm labor, and if you wanted to attract them you would have to offer much higher wages that illegals or migrant laborers get.
And then retail food prices would sky-rocket, and people would begin buying cheaper imported food....and kerplop! there goes the whole point of the thing.
There are good reasons that Americans won't pick crops for a living. It is seasonal, back breaking work and many Americans don't live in rural areas. In short, it's not a career job for Americans thus the unlimited H-2A visas for legal, foreign workers.
Only 2% of illegals are picking crops so how would prices skyrocket? The greedy growers only pocket the profits from their cheap, illegal workers. They pass little to nothing on as savings to the consumer. What they do pass on to us are their enormous social costs so illegal alien labor is no bargain to most taxpayers.
Wrong. H2A visas are UNLIMITED, and are explicitly for agricultural workers.
What's wrong with the visas being limited? Isn't agricultural work seasonal? Don't migrant workers, by definition, MIGRATE with the seasonal crops to new areas?
There is also NOTHING WRONG with providing free housing and transportation to ag workers, who are already being underpaid and otherwise subsidized by tax payers (ER visits, kids in schools, etc.).
The reason why it "isn't working" is because nobody is ENFORCING it. Workers and employers will ALWAYS go the path of least resistance. ENFORCE the laws with HEAVY fines and you'll find that magically, the law begins to work.
I'm guessing you are using the term 'unlimited' as to infer that there is no limit to the visas and that is correct, but there are a number of limitations in the program and it's quite common that farmers who use the program do not end up with the number of workers they contracted for. And, workers must be paid wages for 3/4 of the contract period even if there is not enough work to employ them for that period and workers transportation home is paid for by the employer. They can't 'migrate' anywhere unless there is another contractor who has hired them, if they finish their job or there isn't enough work for them they go home, the minute they are not working for the farmer they contracted with they need to be on their way home.
There's nothing wrong with providing free housing and transportation? lol ask a farmer about that, especially when they need to arrange for it in advance and they don't usually get the full number of workers they contracted for. They don't bring their families on H2A so you are mistaken about 'kids in school' that has NOTHING to do with this program. There is no medical care unless a workers illness is covered by worker's comp, so their health problems will still be taken care of in a hospital ER.
The workers wages are the higher of prevailing wage, minimum wage or AEWR, here's a map showing the AEWR rate by state in all states it's higher than the minimum wage https://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta....R_Map_2017.pdf
And you expect farmers to use this program..really? Why would they when it's not mandatory, and if it were mandatory crops would rot on the ground because not enough workers are willing to sign up with H2A Why not just issue guest worker cards?
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