November 25, 2016
CapitalPress.com
5
Minimum wage, West Coast H-2A minimum
sick leave hit
wage likely to increase
Wash. employers
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Passage
of Initiative 1433 by Wash-
ington voters, boosting the
state’s minimum wage, is an-
other “straw that can break
an employer’s back,” says
Dan Fazio, director of WAF-
LA, formerly the Washington
Farm Labor Association.
Washington’s minimum
wage is $9.47 per hour but
with passage of I-1433 it goes
up to $11 on Jan. 1, 2017,
$11.50 on Jan. 1, 2018, $12 on
Jan. 1, 2019, $13.50 on Jan. 1,
2020 and returns to being cal-
culated on a consumer price
index in 2021.
“The minimum wage is
one of a number of new reg-
ulations that are making it
harder for people to do busi-
ness,” Fazio said.
Employers also are strug-
gling with a new federal wage
rule under the Fair Labor
Standards Act regarding hour-
ly versus salaried workers
that’s tied up in litigation, he
said.
The new state minimum
wage hurts workers in that it
causes small employers who
can’t afford to pay more to lay
off workers, he said.
“If an employer keeps nine
employees but lays off one,
the nine make more but the
one makes nothing,” he said.
“That’s already happened in
areas of big minimum wage
increases.”
I-1433 not only raises the
minimum wage but for the
first time requires all employ-
ers to provide sick leave for
full-time and seasonal em-
ployees.
Sick leave accrues at
one hour for every 40 hours
worked beginning on the first
day of employment. A full-
time employee working 40
hours per week would accrue
6.5 days per year.
Seasonal workers who
leave an employer but then
return within 12 months are
entitled to continue accruing
sick leave where they left off.
“I think that’s unfair. It’s
tough for the employer to
keep track of all of this. Sick
leave shouldn’t accrue if the
employee is gone for more
than 90 days,” Fazio said.
The initiative also states
that for each hour of paid sick
leave used, an employee shall
be paid the greater of the min-
imum hourly wage rate or his
or her normal hourly compen-
sation. That means it applies
to piece rate and determining
the hourly equivalent of vari-
able piece rates gets compli-
cated, Fazio said.
OLYMPIA — The minimum wage for
H-2A visa foreign guestworkers in Wash-
ington and Oregon likely will rise 5.44
percent to $13.38 per hour in 2017, mak-
ing it the highest in the nation, accord-
ing to WAFLA, formerly the Washington
Farm Labor Association.
The rate has been $12.69 for the past year
and goes up every Jan. 1 based on govern-
ment surveys of regional prevailing wages.
“It appears that the large percentage
increases and higher wages for field and
livestock workers are symptomatic of a
dramatic labor shortage nationwide,”
said Dan Fazio, WAFLA director.
“It’s good news for workers but very
tough for farmers,” he said.
As the wage increases, it’s increasing
farmers’ production costs, he said.
The mandatory minimum wage for
H-2A workers, known as the Adverse
Effect Wage Rate, is set by the U.S. De-
partment of Labor based on surveys of
prevailing wages of domestic workers by
region. It is above state minimum wages
and intended to prevent wages of domes-
tic workers from being adversely affected
by the importation of foreign workers.
The National Agricultural Statistics
Service calculates the AEWR from sur-
veys of field and livestock workers con-
ducted during one week each calendar
quarter, Fazio said. On Nov. 17, NASS
published the third- and fourth-quarter
wage rates along with the entire year’s
calculations, he said.
Wage surveys conducted by the Wash-
ington Employment Security Department
are not considered by NASS or DOL but
DOL encourages states to do their own
surveys, he said.
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
H-2A workers thin Gala apples in Zirkle Fruit Co.’s CRO Orchard south of Rock Island,
Wash., last July. Zirkle hired 2,889 H-2A workers in 2015 and pays at least the minimum
wage, although workers usually make more on piece rate.
These rates are not official until issued
by DOL, but it looks like California’s
AEWR will increase 5.72 percent from
$11.89 to $12.57 per hour, Fazio said.
The rate for Idaho, Montana and Wy-
oming likely will decrease slightly from
$11.75 to $11.66 per hour, he said. The
rate in Colorado, Utah and Nevada prob-
ably will drop from $11.27 to $11 per
hour and Michigan, Minnesota and Wis-
consin likely will increase 5.74 percent
from $12.02 to $12.75 per hour, he said.
The national average will probably go
up 3.92 percent from $11.74 to $12.20,
he said.
Washington growers hired 13,641
H-2A workers in 2016, mostly from
Mexico, for pruning and picking tree
fruit. Often those workers make more
than the AEWR on piece rate, which is
pay for the volume of fruit they pick.
But at a minimum, growers using
H-2A workers must pay all their work-
ers, foreign and domestic, the highest of
the AEWR, the prevailing hourly wage, a
collective bargaining wage, if applicable,
or the state or federal minimum wage,
Fazio said. “The AEWR becomes the de
facto minimum wage for farmers who
use H-2A and pay workers by the hour,”
he said.
The H-2A program allows agricultural
employers to hire foreign guestworkers
on temporary work visas to fill seasonal
jobs. Employers must show a shortage
of U.S. workers in the area and provide
housing, transportation and a minimum
wage.
New Chico State ag dean to keep focus on practical learning
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
CHICO, Calif. — The new dean
of California State University-Chi-
co’s College of Agriculture says he
wants to continue the emphasis on
providing a practical education for
students.
John Unruh, who took the reins
of the university’s ag program in
August, said its goal has always
been to make sure there are job op-
portunities for students after gradu-
ation.
“Our goal is student success,”
Unruh told the Capital Press. “One
unique thing about Chico State
is that we emphasize experiential
learning. We provide hands-on ac-
tivities in class, working opportuni-
ties on the farm, internships, study
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
John Unruh took over in August as
dean of the College of Agriculture at
California State University-Chico. He
wants to continue the emphasis on
providing practical knowledge.
abroad, club activities and compe-
tition teams.”
Along with all the hands-on
work, the university does encour-
age critical thinking and writing
skills and a “basic appreciation and
knowledge of agriculture,” he said.
Unruh came to Chico State from
Kansas State University, where he
chaired the food science undergrad-
uate program. He replaces Chico
State agriculture instructor Dave
Daley, who had served as interim
dean since 2014.
Having grown up on a diversified
crop and cattle farm near Warden,
Wash., Unruh received bachelor’s
and master’s degrees at Washington
State University before earning a
doctorate at KSU in animal science
and industry with an emphasis in
meat science and beef production.
In Chico, he runs an ag program
whose enrollment has more than
doubled in the past seven years. It
offers four undergraduate degrees
and an online master’s degree and
includes the 800-acre university
farm, which employs a manager and
15 full-time employees and has up to
40 student workers.
Unruh said he’s proud to join
a program whose competition
teams have taken three nation-
al championships in the past year
— in the academic quadrathlon,
animal science and rangeland
management.
He became familiar with Chico
State’s competitive prowess while
competing in livestock judging and
animal evaluation at WSU, he said.
He also was assistant coach of the
meat judging team at Kansas State,
where he had taught since 1988.
“This is the first time a non-land
grant school has won” the academic
quadrathlon for animal science, Un-
ruh said. “It says something about
the hands-on education at the farm”
that students can demonstrate such
knowledge, he said.
Unruh arrived at Chico State
just after Gayle E. Hutchinson be-
came the university’s new president
in July. She had been provost and
vice president of academic affairs at
CSU-Channel Islands.
Unruh said he was drawn to Chi-
co State by the fact that it’s small
enough to keep class sizes small,
that it has opportunities for applied
and undergraduate research through
partnership with industries, and that
it deals with a more diverse set of
crops than KSU.
“It’s just an opportunity to con-
tribute back to agriculture from all
the things I’ve learned in my career,”
he said.
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