Click here to read the full Legislative Memo

Key Findings

1. SB 6261 would add nothing to existing legal protections for agricultural workers and would only serve to denigrate Washington farmers and ranchers.
2. The Federal Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA) already protects agricultural workers from discrimination, threats, and hostile work environments.
3. Punishing employers who follow current law would not help workers.

Introduction

There are approximately 164,000 jobs in agriculture in Washington state. Most of these jobs, about 100,000, are filled by people working in the fields, pastures, and barns throughout the state. Of the 100,000 farm employees directly involved in crop and livestock production in our state, approximately 25 percent were hired through the federal H-2A jobs program and have come from outside the United States on a work visa provided through a recruitment agency. The H-2A program provides foreign workers to U.S. employers when the domestic labor force falls short.

Washington farmers and ranchers pay these agricultural workers either the state minimum wage of $13.50 an hour or the current Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) of $15.83 an hour, depending upon their employment status. Many workers earn more due to competition in the labor market.

In addition to providing competitive wages, agricultural employers who hire H-2A workers provide housing and transportation for their employees. They are also required to pass mandatory health and safety inspections of their housing facilities and farming and ranching operations.

As with any government program, there are people who do not follow the rules and may take actions that harm workers. Employers who break the rules are punished under existing laws. Imposing new laws, as the sponsors of SB 6261 want to do, only punishes the employers who are doing the right thing and overly burdens a regulatory system that is already brimming with work restrictions.

SB 6261 would require non-profit organizations as well as recruiters and some employers to register with the state as farm labor contractors, making the employment process needlessly complicated for both employees and employers. In the original bill, employers would have been unable to make employment changes for any worker who filed a complaint against that employer during the growing season; the employer would also have been required to hire that employee again the following year. Legislation like SB 6261 adds complications to an already cumbersome hiring process but does little to protect the workers it is purportedly meant to help.

Click here to read the full Legislative Memo