Judge Orders Trump Administration to Reinstate Farmworker Wage Survey

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Courthouse News Service


October 28, 2020
NICK CAHILL

FRESNO, Calif. (CN) — Likely preventing pay cuts to the thousands of U.S. farmworkers toiling through the pandemic, a federal judge on Wednesday squashed the Trump administration’s bid to halt a longstanding survey that determines the minimum wage for immigrant farmworkers.

Siding with the nation’s largest farmworker union, U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd agreed the Trump administration hastily postponed the Farm Labor Survey without a clear replacement.

Drozd ruled the survey is essential to setting a fair pay rate and ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to continue with the next planned survey to prevent an avalanche of future labor lawsuits.

“Because the Farm Labor Survey ‘is the only timely and reliable source of information on the size of the farmworker population’ legal consequences would flow from an inaccurate tabulation of wage rates,” Drozd said in a ruling issued late Wednesday.

Last month, the USDA unceremoniously announced that it wouldn’t collect data for the November 2020 survey, halting a procedure that started in 1910. The brief 1-page announcement said the industry and the public could rely on “other data sources” instead.

Read more: https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-orders-trump-administration-to-reinstate-farmworker-wage-survey/

[secondwind]

1. They really don't like to work, do they.....

[Illumination]

2. This has a Stephen Miller odor to it...

[Sherman A1]

3. Agreed

It certainly does.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. I suspect their "other data sources" would be either commercial interests or.....

Republican think tanks, both of which will help keep wages low. That's why we need strong government agencies for the people and thank goodness for unions.

If they had gotten away with this move, it could have stayed that way for a long time.

It's always proven: Never turn your back on a bunch of Republicans.

KY

[riversedge]

5. Lawyers must be making a mist from all these lawsuits.

[Bayard]

6. $15.07 an hour?

I'm not believing that, especially for undocumented workers. Those are the folks the Calif. economy depends on, and are treated the worst.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. More about the Farm Labor Survey:

I knew we had something about this. It took me a while to remember where.

Fri Dec 6, 2019: Here's where to complain:

From The mind-numbing rant, based on a version posted on the first Friday in September 2016:

{snip}

[center]What About Employment on Farms?[/center]

[font color="red"]New material, added May 4, 2018:[/font]

Note that the BLS establishment survey measures only "nonfarm payroll employment."

Nonfarm payrolls

I'm hoping the following link goes to an impartial site:

What is 'Nonfarm Payroll'

So who measures employment on farms? Hmmmmmm....

United States Department of Agriculture
Economic Research Service

Farm Labor

ERS provides information on a range of farm labor issues, including:

• Size and composition of the U.S. agricultural workforce (self-employed versus hired)

• Recent trends in the employment of hired farmworkers

• Demographic characteristics of hired farmworkers, including age, sex, and nativity

• Geographic distribution of hired farmworkers (all occupations)

• Wages of hired farmworkers

• Labor cost share of total gross revenues

• H-2A temporary agricultural visa program

• Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR)

• Legal status and migration practices of hired crop farmworkers

Finally, we provide links to key data sources with summaries.

{snip}