Labor attorney says recent developments are cause for optimism

A prominent labor attorney says there’s reason for optimism for agricultural employers heading into 2026. At last month’s Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference, Chris Schulte of Fisher Phillips law firm said that the Farmworker Protection Rule that “made a lot of farmers’ lives harder” has been rescinded and that a change in how H-2A wages are calculated will result in wage certainty and predictability. “There is a three-year average now so [wages] should stabilize,” Schulte said, adding that the previous three years of double-digit farm worker wage increases in Georgia were unsustainable for many farm employers. According to his bio on the firm’s website, Schulte represents employers, including many in the agriculture industry. He has also worked on behalf of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association to advocate for more farmer-friendly labor laws ffor growers in the Peach State. He says farmers tracking H-2A program developments should pay close attention to two upcoming actions:

• New wage data will be published on July 1. Schulte says that right now, farmers know how much they’ll be paying workers for spring planting and early-season work, but we “won’t know what wages will look like for harvest” until that July 1 data is released.
• Schulte said it will be key for growers across the country to “keep an eye on your state’s minimum wage, because where the minimum wage is higher than the H-2A wage, the minimum wage prevails.” That’s due to the Adverse Compensation Adjustment, which was put in place to level the playing field for native U.S. farm workers because “H-2A workers don’t pay housing or food costs at the same level of U.S. workers.”

Schulte said that U.S. farm employers stand to save $2.4 billion annually due to that ACA rule. Schulte also believes the H-2A program will be expanded in 2026 to become a year-round program (vs. the current 10 month-program) and to include greenhouse and dairy operations. He added additional regulations are coming that will increase scrutiny on foreign workers employed primarily as drivers on farms. “It looks like we’ll have a new rule asking for criminal background checks from each state the person has been in for three months or longer,” he said. Schulte encouraged farmers and those in the ag industry to “get loud” once the long-awaited Ag Labor Bill sponsored by Rep. G.T. Thompson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, is released. “[Ag labor] organizations are going to be urging farmers to reach out and ask their reps to support the bill,” he said. “Right now it’s still a few weeks away, and we’re hoping to see it by the end of February.”