Sec. 205. Report on wage protections
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Not later than 3 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 3 years thereafter, the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Agriculture shall submit a report to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives that addresses— whether, and the manner in which, the employment of H–2A workers in the United States has impacted the wages, working conditions, or job opportunities of United States farm workers; whether, and the manner in which, the adverse effect wage rate increases or decreases wages on United States farms, broken down by geographic region and farm size; whether any potential impact of the adverse effect wage rate varies based on the percentage of workers in a geographic region that are H–2A workers; the degree to which the adverse effect wage rate is affected by the inclusion in wage surveys of piece rate compensation, bonus payments, and other pay incentives, and whether such forms of incentive compensation should be surveyed and reported separately from hourly base rates; whether, and the manner in which, other factors may artificially affect the adverse effect wage rate, including factors that may be specific to a region, State, or region within a State; whether, and the manner in which, the H–2A program affects the ability of United States farms to compete with agricultural commodities imported from outside the United States; the number and percentage of farm workers in the United States whose incomes are below the poverty line; whether alternative wage standards would be sufficient to prevent wages in occupations in which H–2A workers are employed from falling below the wage level that would have prevailed in the absence of the H–2A program; whether any changes are warranted in the current methodologies for calculating the adverse effect wage rate and the prevailing wage; and recommendations for future wage protection for United States farm workers.
In gathering information for the report required subsection (a), the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Agriculture shall interview equal numbers of representatives of agricultural employers and agricultural workers, both locally and nationally.