Photo by Christie Montford
January 10, 2024
www.gfb.org
Vol. 6 No. 1
GA ATTORNEY GENERAL JOINS AG GROUPS SEEKING AEWR TRANSPARENCY Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has joined the call for DOL to provide meaningful explanations of the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) and to pause the scheduled increases to allow for a long-term solution to be developed. Carr wrote to acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Dec. 29, noting concerns about cost increases for producers and rising food prices for consumers. In his letter, Carr wrote, “The lack of transparency concerning the methodology can only lead our constituents to reasonably assume these mandated wage increases were established arbitrarily and without regard for the wellbeing of Georgia farmers. Therefore, we ask for more information on what methodology and raw data was used to justify the substantial wage increase and the discrepancy between the proposed AEWR and private sector rates. We also request that the increases are halted while we await the responses from your agencies and our office has the opportunity to evaluate them.” New AEWRs for users of the H-2A program went into effect Jan.1. Following a 21% increase in the wage in the last 14 months, Georgia’s AEWR is now set at $14.68 for H-2A workers for 2024. Georgia House and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairmen Robert Dickey and Russ Goodman have organized letters to Georgia’s congressional delegation, and other agricultural organizations, including Georgia Farm Bureau, are working to make Georgia growers’ concerns over AEWR known to the state’s members of Congress. On Jan. 2, the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association (GFVGA) wrote to acting Secretary Su, emphasizing that Georgia growers now find themselves at the intersection of trade policy that will increase our nations reliance on others to provide our food and an H-2A program that is cost prohibitive for growers to use. GFVGA has worked with members of the Georgia congressional delegation to meet with USDA -continued on next page