This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh is an active member.
On December 12, 2024, the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) announced that it will soon publish two Federal Register notices updating the Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWRs) for range and non-range H-2A applications.
The first notice will update the AEWR under the H-2A temporary agricultural employment program that applies to all range H-2A job opportunities for which the AEWR is determined using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) September 2024 Employment Cost Index (ECI).
The second notice will update the AEWRs under the H-2A temporary agricultural employment program that apply to most non-range H-2A job opportunities for which the AEWRs are determined using the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) October 2024 Farm Labor Survey (FLS).
To ensure that employers are aware of the coming updates, ETA said it is providing a preview of upcoming wage changes based on the September 2024 ECI results, published on October 31, 2024, and the October 2024 FLS results, published on November 20, 2024. Employers should refer to the notices, once published, for the effective dates of the new AEWRs.
