Employers stole $1.8 billion from workers in the industries that employed most H-2B workers over the

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

two decades

Executive summary

The H-2B visa program is one of many U.S. temporary work visa programs. H-2B is intended to be used when employers face labor shortages in seasonal jobs, with the most common occupations including landscaping, construction, forestry, seafood and meat processing, traveling carnivals, restaurants, and hospitality. H-2B has an annual numerical limit or “cap” of 66,000 that is established by law but that has been supplemented with additional visas by Congress and the executive branch on a year-by-year basis over the past few years. The number of H-2B workers is growing and in 2022 will surpass the peak it had reached in 2007.

Data from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services shows that there were nearly 117,000 H-2B workers in 2021, and the program is projected to grow to more than 150,000 workers in 2022, a new high.

Why does that matter? Because as this growth occurs, migrant workers with H-2B visas are being employed in industries in which there is extensive wage theft and lawbreaking by employers.

Data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) show that, in the seven major industries in which nearly all H-2B workers are employed, nearly $1.8 billion in wages was stolen from workers (which includes both U.S. and migrant workers) between 2000 and 2021.

https://www.epi.org/publication/h-2b-industries-and-wage-theft/

[JoeOtterbein]

1. K n R ! Thanks for posting! nt

[TheBlackAdder]

2. I wonder if H-2B Visa holders can be advised to work, stay silent & document. Report at end of stint

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Then, just prior to going home, the Feds jump on the employer for back wages and fines.

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[KentuckyWoman]

3. Good post.

One of the reasons I am careful about knowing the local farmer where I get meat, dairy, eggs from is this. Meat and poultry operations use a lot of immigrant workers and is notorious for abuse.

Getting harder here in the suburbs but I got lucky and found a small local farm group.