On farms, orchards, nurseries and greenhouse operations in the United States, labor sometimes is a scarce commodity even with competitive wages for the sometimes menial tasks. Some of the menial tasks of agricultural work include hours in the hot sun, working in the wet and cold, bending, lifting and hours of standing especially when dealing with perishable products such as produce, nursery stock or even picking apples.
In order to fill these labor shortages, a federal program called H2A has been in force for several years to fill the gap with immigrants (guest workers) from other countries, mainly Mexico.
At our operation, Dayton Nurseries in Norton, full time and part time workers of good quality have been increasingly scarce starting about 15 years ago. With the help of an attorney in North Carolina specializing in the H2A program, extensive documentation and other requirements administered by the US Department of Labor were relatively easy to fulfill although somewhat time consuming. Navigating the required documents were completed last year well before the 75 day mandate before the workers were set to arrive. Some of the requirements and necessary documentation are listed below:
- Documents such as the original Articles of Incorporation from the Secretary of State (if incorporated).
- Original assignment of the federal employment number (FEIN) by the Internal Revenue Service.
- Proof of paid up or a letter of intent to pay Workers Compensation for the guest worker’s employment period.
- A letter stating the jobs the workers will be performing and the requested dates of arrival and departure.
- Housing that must be provided to the worker at no charge must be inspected and approved by the Ohio Bureau of Jobs and Family Services.
- Transportation provided for the worker to and from the job site as well as transportation to the bank and grocery store a minimum of once each week.
- All paycheck information must be written in English and Spanish with a signature from the worker acknowledging the worker’s understanding and the receipt of payment.
- An employment ad placed in the local paper at least twice in a week and on Sunday to advertise the positions open in order to solicit local labor before the arrival of any foreign workers.
The partial list above while extensive, was easily navigated by our attorney, Andrew Jackson. Our experience at Dayton’s with our first year of the program in 2018 has been quite positive. Three H2A workers arrived on March 27th and returned to Mexico a few days before their Visas expired. Conservatively estimating the productivity of the men, their performance with minimal supervision was that of 1½ times that of a local worker.
With one worker, Juve, having excellent English skills, he was able to lead and instruct the other two men that had little proficiency in English. An accurate description of the men would be never late, never refusing work, always pleasant and hardworking whether in the cold or hot sun.
The reaction for almost all the full and part time workers at the nursery was positive. Some of the part time “marginal” workers were prone to lateness and calling off frequently did not share the same positive attitude as the H2A workers hours could be increased to make up for the missed hours by the marginal employee or replace these problem employees all together.
Without exaggerating, the foreign worker would work from 7 in the morning to 9 at night seven days a weeks if asked, as long as they could get to the grocery store to shop and the bank to cash their check and wire back money to their families.
Other advantages in the employment of the H2A workers besides the normally high productivity of the worker include the following:
- No federal, state or local income taxes or employment taxes such as FICA and employment taxes are to be withdrawn from their checks. (Although the employer portion of employment taxes such as unemployment insurance and FICA are not a requirement as with local workers however, we did have to withhold Norton City Income tax).
- Overtime for hours over 40 per week are paid as straight time.
For 2019, the Federal government has set the rate of pay for H2A workers at $13.26 per hour for the State of Ohio. This year at Dayton’s, we have contacted our last year’s worker, Juve, who will recruit the same men from last year or other men who will arrive in February to begin work in the greenhouse and gradually moving to the outside as the weather warms. Even with substantial up-front costs, we at Dayton’s would highly recommend the H2A program for any agricultural operation experiencing a shortage of workers.