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CapitalPress.com
January 8, 2016
Wages
H-2A minimum wage increases in many states Meetings
Capital Press
The minimum wage for
H-2A visa foreign guestwork-
ers in Washington and Oregon
has been increased 27 cents an
hour to $12.69 for 2016 by the
U.S. Department of Labor.
The rate went up 56 cents to
$11.89 per hour in California
and up 61 cents to $11.75 in
Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
The rate is down 10 cents
to $11.27 in Nevada, Utah and
Colorado and up 66 cents to
$11.20 in Arizona and New
Mexico.
The mandatory minimum,
known as the Adverse Ef-
fect Wage Rate, or AEWR, is
based on Department of Labor
surveys of agricultural wag-
es by region. It is above state
minimum wages and is intend-
ed to prevent wages of simi-
larly employed U.S. workers
from being adversely affected
by the importation of foreign
workers.
“We wish it wouldn’t go
up because the (federal H-2A)
program is expensive. It’s a
high minimum wage added
onto housing and transporta-
tion growers provide,” said
Dan Fazio, director of WAF-
LA, formerly the Washington
Farm Labor Association, in
Olympia.
Idaho’s AEWR is 62 per-
cent higher than its minimum
wage of $7.25 per hour and
“that’s substantial,” he said. It
increases industry’s costs, he
said.
The increases in Idaho and
California reflect tightening la-
bor supplies, he said.
Most pickers make more
than the AEWR on piece rate
because they work fast. But
AEWR increases push piece
rates higher, Washington tree
fruit companies have said.
The highest 2016 AEWR in
the nation is the Dakotas, Ne-
braska and Kansas at $13.80.
The lowest is Alabama, Geor-
gia and South Carolina at
$10.59.
A year ago the rate in-
creased 55 cents per hour in
Washington and Oregon and
yet the use of H-2A workers
in Washington still rose from
9,077 in 2014 to 11,844 in
2015.
Increases have been largest
after big crop years in which
wages rise because of larger
labor shortages, Fazio said.
“In the Pacific Northwest
we have a severe labor short-
age,” he said. “The last time
the state conducted a labor
survey was almost two years
ago. The shortage was nearly
15 percent. We need another
survey. It’s crucial, but we can
tell labor is short because we
get few, if any, referrals from
the state.”
He was referring to re-
quired advertising for domes-
tic workers at the AEWR rate
before an employer can get ap-
proval for H-2A workers.
Washington uses more
H-2A workers than any other
Western state, mainly in the
cultivation and harvest of tree
fruit. Its use in packing tree
fruit is increasing. Most of the
workers come from Mexico.
“We will have nearly
15,000 (H-2A) in 2016. Imag-
ine what we would do if we
had 15,000 fewer seasonal
workers. We would be sunk,
devastated,” Fazio said.
The H-2A program allows
agricultural employers to hire
foreign guest workers on tem-
porary work visas to fill sea-
sonal jobs. Employers must
show a shortage of U.S. work-
ers in the area and provide
housing, transportation and a
minimum wage.
Rapid growth of H-2A
workers in nurseries, berries
and tree fruit is likely in Ore-
gon and in tree fruit and hops
in Idaho as annual growth
slows from 40 to 15 percent
in Washington, where use al-
ready is high, Fazio has said.
Wafla hired and provided
to growers 7,895 of the 11,844
H-2A workers in Washington
in 2015, DOL statistics show.
Zirkle Fruit Co., Selah, hired
2,889.
The DOL certified 17,942
H-2A workers for Florida in
2015, 17,696 for North Car-
olina and 14,393 for Georgia.
Washington ranked fourth at
11,844 and California was fifth
at 8,591. Louisiana, Kentucky,
New York, Arizona and South
Carolina completed the top 10.
Oregon hired about 250
H-2A workers in 2015 and is
expected to increase by 100
this year, WAFLA has said.
Idaho was at 30 and likely will
increase to 50.
The top 10 H-2A users in
2015 by crop or occupation
were: tobacco, 14,544; berries,
12,520; apples, 7,507; hay and
straw, 6,989; oranges, 5,882;
melons, 5,843; nursery and
greenhouse, 5,109; agricultur-
al equipment operators, 4,974;
fruits and vegetables, 4,639;
and onions, 4,610.
Yakima may look at minimum wage hike
SAGE Fact #124
By DAN WHEAT
The John Day Dam powerhouse contains
16 generators with a total
generating capacity of 2.2 million kilowatts,
enough to power two cities the size of Seattle.
2-2/#6
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — The
Yakima City Council may
move toward increasing the
minimum wage this year, and
if it does many tree fruit pack-
ers will be concerned.
The Service Employees In-
ternational Union and the af-
filiated Working Washington
group have been pushing for a
$15 per hour minimum wage
in several cities but mainly
in Yakima and Olympia, said
Maxford Nelsen, a labor poli-
cy analyst with Freedom Foun-
dation, a conservative think
tank in Olympia.
The minimum wage is $9.47
an hour throughout the state
except in Seattle and SeaTac,
where $15 is being phased in.
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Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Eleodoro Rameriz loads a box with Fuji apples at Washington Fruit
& Produce in Yakima, Wash., on Dec. 8. The new plant is one of
many fruit packing facilities in and around Yakima that would be
impacted by any increase in the city’s minimum wage.
approved a gradual increase to
$12.
In Yakima, the city council
is more inclined to increase the
minimum wage because four
of seven members were newly
elected last fall, Nelsen said.
“To my knowledge no or-
dinance has been introduced
yet, but I won’t be surprised if
there are steps in that direction
at some point this year,” Nelsen
said.
Jeff Cutter, interim city man-
ager, said no such measure is be-
fore the council but that doesn’t
mean it couldn’t materialize to-
morrow.
An attempt to increase the
minimum wage likely would
be opposed by the more than
a dozen tree fruit packing
companies in Yakima and the
surrounding area that employ
thousands of workers, said Da-
vid Henze, president of C.M.
Holtzinger Fruit Co., a Yakima
packer.
Packers outside the city lim-
its and in neighboring towns
LEGAL
SECRETARY OF STATE NOTICE
OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING
HEARING
Oregon Department of Agriculture,
Pesticides Program, Administrative
Rules Chapter #603, Sue Gooch, Rules
Coordinator, (503) 986-4583.
Amend: 603-057-0502,
603-052-0530 & 603-052-0532.
RULE SUMMARY: The civil penalty
provisions for violation of Oregon’s
pesticide laws have been in place since
the 1970’s with the exception of a
penalty of $10,000 for gross neg-
ligence and willful misconduct. The
current base pesticide civil penalty
provisions have not been updated
since 1970 and may no longer be
effective at achieving the goals of
enforcement including but not limited
to providing a deterrent. The 2015
Legislative Assembly increased the
amount of civil penalties for violations
of Oregon’s pesticide laws by enacting
section 11 of HB 3549 (2015). That sec-
tion amends ORS 634.900(1) as of
January 1, 2016, so that is will provide,
in addition to any other liability or
penalty provided by law, that the
Director of Agriculture may impose a
civil penalty on a person for violation
of any of the provisions of this chap-
ter relating to pesticide application,
sale or labeling. The civil penalty for a
first violation shall be not more than
$2,000. For a subsequent violation,
the director may impose a civil penalty
of not more than $4,000.
This rulemaking will amend the rules
that describe the maximum amount
allowed and describe how to calculate
the amount of a civil penalty that is
not based on a gross negligence or
willful misconduct. This is necessary in
order to implement the policy pro-
vided by the 2015 Legislative
Assembly. Hearing date: January 26,
2016 at 1:30 p.m. Location: Oregon
Department of Agriculture, 3rd Floor
Media Room, 635 Capital St NE,
Salem, OR. Last day for public com-
ment is January 26, 2016.
2-4/#4
such as Selah, Moxee, Union
Gap, Wapato, Naches, Tieton
and Cowiche would have to fol-
low suit to remain competitive
in hiring workers, Henze said.
“We want to make sure our
employees are compensated
fairly. Labor is a major com-
ponent of costs. The industry is
recovering from poor pricing
in 2014, so right now would be
poor timing,” he said.
Packers have been experi-
encing a labor shortage, he said.
Mike Gempler, executive di-
rector of the Washington Grow-
ers League in Yakima, said gen-
erally employers feel they are
paying market rates and would
not welcome large increases in
floor rates because it increases
their costs across the board.
Jon DeVaney, president of
the Washington State Tree Fruit
Association in Yakima and
Wenatchee, said labor groups
started a petition drive last fall
in the Yakima area for a higher
minimum wage.
“It’s very troubling. This
could severely complicate the
ability to bring on and train
more staff,” he said.
City-by-city increases are
a bad idea because economies
are complex and the state is
already disadvantaged with a
high minimum wage making
it a high-priced producer, he
said.
LEGAL
SECRETARY OF STATE NOTICE
OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING
HEARING
Oregon Department of
Agriculture, Market Access &
Certification Program,
Administrative Rules Chapter
#603, Sue Gooch, Rules
Coordinator, (503) 986-4583.
Amend: OAR 603-052-0385.
RULE SUMMARY: The proposed
amendments to OAR 603-052-
0385 would harmonize the
regulatory language in Oregon’s
Malheur County Bean Control
Area with Idaho’s IDAPA
02.06.06 and IDAPA 02.06.25.
The proposed amendments
would: 1) harmonize the sci-
entific names for the diseases of
concern; 2) harmonize eradi-
cation methods by amending
section 4(b) to add “Seed har-
vested from any commercial or
garden beans first found
infected during windrow inspec-
tion shall not be eligible for cer-
tification for replanting;” 3)
delete Section 5(a), as this con-
trol method was determined to
be impractical, and 4) har-
monize phytosanitary require-
ments for imported non-
Phaseolus bean seed for plant-
ing by adding a soil tolerance.
Hearing date: January 21, 2016
at 8:30 a.m. Location: 309 NE
Third Ave, Ontario, OR. Last day
for public comment is January
21, 2016.
2-4/#4
focus on
minimum
wage
proposals
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
ONTARIO, Ore. — Many
farmers and others in Eastern
Oregon fear efforts to signifi-
cantly raise the state’s min-
imum wage would result in
businesses moving across the
border to Idaho.
Townhall meetings were
held in Eastern Oregon this
week to inform people about
the different proposals to raise
the state’s minimum wage and
discuss the impacts they could
have.
One proposed ballot mea-
sure would increase Oregon’s
minimum wage from $9.25 to
$15 an hour over three years
and another would raise it to
$13.50 over that same period.
Idaho’s minimum wage is
$7.25.
The meetings were orga-
nized by Rep. Cliff Bentz,
R-Ontario, who said he has
heard from many people that
the current $2 an hour differ-
ence between the two states’
minimum wages makes it ex-
tremely difficult to create new
jobs in Eastern Oregon.
The unemployment rates
in Malheur, Grant, Harney
and Baker counties in Eastern
Oregon are 2-4 percentage
points higher than the rates in
Idaho’s Canyon, Payette and
Washington counties, which
border Oregon. Bentz be-
lieves the difference between
the states’ minimum wages is
a big reason for that disparity.
“It’s been difficult just to
attract jobs” in Eastern Ore-
gon, he said. “It’s going to be
impossible if (the minimum
wage) goes higher....”
Several proposals to raise
the state’s minimum wage
were introduced in the Ore-
gon Legislature last year, in-
cluding one that would have
increased it to $15 in 2018.
Passing legislation that
increases Oregon’s minimum
wage is expected to be a prior-
ity during the upcoming legis-
lative session.
Farmers and agribusiness-
es in Eastern Oregon said they
couldn’t compete against their
colleagues on the Idaho side
if the state’s minimum wage
is increased substantially and
Idaho’s stays the same.
“I guarantee you there will
be packing sheds in this valley
that move to the other side,”
said farmer Paul Skeen, pres-
ident of the Malheur County
Onion Growers Association.
“They’ll have to. They won’t
have any other choice.”
Owyhee Produce General
Manager Shay Myers said his
onion packing plant in Nyssa
couldn’t compete against its
Idaho counterparts if Ore-
gon’s minimum wage is raised
to anywhere near $15 an hour
while Idaho’s doesn’t change.
“There are only two ways
to cut labor costs: moving
or automation,” he said. “It
might be easier for me to
move across the border.”
LEGAL
NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
The USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS)
announces a meeting of the
Washington State Technical
Advisory
Committee
on
January 26, 2016 from 9:30
am to 3:00 pm, 316 W. Boone
Ave., Suite 450, Spokane,
WA. Remote access is also
available.
For more information
contact Sherre Copeland,
(360) 704-7758.
2-4/#4
By DAN WHEAT
LEGAL
SECRETARY OF STATE NOTICE
OF TEMPORARY RULEMAKING
Oregon Department of Agriculture,
Pesticides Program, Administrative
Rules Chapter #603, Sue Gooch, Rules
Coordinator, (503) 986-4583.
Amend: OAR 603-057-0107, 603-057-
0155, 603-057-0157.
RULE SUMMARY: As a result of HB
3549 (2015), the Oregon Department
of Agriculture is legislatively obligated
to create rules requiring the certifi-
cation of aerial pesticide applicator
trainees and aerial pesticide appli-
cators for the year 2016. HB 3549
(2015) mandates that for 2016, there
be an aerial pesticide applicator
trainee and aerial pesticide applicator
license. Rule will be effective January
1, 2016 thru June 28, 2016.
2-4/#4