The proportion of employed agricultural workers who were not legally entitled to work in the United States increased from about 14 per cent in 1989-91 to nearly 55 per cent in 1999-2001; In recent years, it has been almost 50%. In 2014-2016, 27 percent of farmers were U.S.-born, 4 percent were immigrants who were granted U.S. citizenship, 21 percent were other authorized immigrants (mostly permanent residents or green card holders), and the remaining 48 percent did not have work permits. The proportion of U.S.-born workers is highest in the Midwest, while the proportion of unauthorized workers is highest in California. The decline in self-employment and family labour until 1990 was faster than the decline in wage labour. According to the Agricultural Labor Force Survey (FSL) of the USDA`s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the number of self-employed and family workers fell from 7.60 million in 1950 to 2.01 million in 1990, a decline of 74%. Over the same period, the average annual employment of salaried agricultural workers – including farm support workers and those working for agricultural workers – fell from 2.33 million to 1.15 million, a decline of 51%. As a result, the proportion of workers hired has increased over time. As fewer and fewer young immigrants enter agriculture, the average age of foreign-born agricultural workers has increased, pushing up the average agricultural labour force as a whole.

The average age of immigrant agricultural workers increased by 5 years between 2008 and 2018. In contrast, the average age of U.S.-born agricultural workers remained roughly constant over this period. H-2A employers must provide transportation and accommodation and pay the applicable federal or state minimum wage, the prevailing wage in that region and occupation as determined by the U.S. Department of Labor, or the regional average farm wage observed in the NASS FLS. The latter is known as the adverse effects wage rate (AEWR) and reflects the legal requirement that H-2A employment should not negatively affect domestic agricultural workers by lowering the average wage. For fiscal year 2020, this minimum hourly wage ranged from $11.71 (in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina) to $15.83 (in Oregon and Washington). In the past, the „Follow the Crop” migrant worker, who moves from state to state through the seasons and works on different crops, is now a relative rarity. These workers represented only 5% of those surveyed by NAWS in 2014-2016, compared to a peak of 14% in 1992-94. In the case of agricultural work, the permitted activities and hours of work vary according to age. Note: „Farm Worker” does not include a commercial packing station that harvests and packages both citrus fruits or berries for a customer. Labor savings make it possible to cultivate a larger area without additional equipment or help.

Even if an increase in acreage is not expected, faster planting can lead to higher yields. In addition, the cost of tractors, tillage equipment and maintenance will be lower with less tillage. Youth reigns! A gateway that provides quick access to information about federal and state labor laws that apply to young workers. The website contains information to educate youth, parents, educators and employers about the hours youth can work, the work youth can do, and how to prevent workplace injuries. Sixty percent of employed agricultural workers live in counties defined as metropolitan. This largely reflects the fact that most of the major agricultural areas of California, Arizona, and other western states are located in large counties that also include major cities and are therefore defined as metropolitan areas. A significant number of agricultural workers are also found in the metropolitan counties of the Great Lakes states (East North Central Division) and in the South Atlantic. Agricultural office workers can be found in a variety of occupations, including farm workers, nursery workers, livestock workers, sorters and sorters, farm inspectors, supervisors and salaried farm managers. The majority are wage workers hired directly by farmers, but some are employees of agricultural service companies, including agricultural contractors, contract pickers and management service providers.

Many industry-wide employment estimates also include farm support personnel, such as human resource managers, sales representatives and truck drivers. Obligations of agricultural workers (Article 2810 of the Labour Code) Legal immigration status is difficult to measure: few surveys ask the question, and unauthorized respondents may be reluctant to answer honestly when asked. The U.S. Department of Labor`s National Survey of Agricultural Workers (NAWS) provides data on the legal immigration status of agricultural workers. NAADS data, which is considered to be of high quality, is collected by trained and reliable meters that conduct in-person interviews with workers at their workplace and with the permission of their employers. SNAA also asks workers about their international and intra-national migration patterns. One limitation of the SNAA, however, is that it excludes the growing number of H-2A workers as well as all employed cattle workers. More than 80% of employed farmers are not migrant workers but are considered sedentary, meaning they work in a single location within 75 miles of their home. This share increased from 41 percent in 1996-98, reflecting a profound change in the nature of the labour force on arable farms. Among the small percentage of migrant workers remaining, the largest group are „commuters” who work at a single agricultural site more than 75 miles from home and can cross an international border to get to their place of work.

Commuters accounted for about 10 percent of agricultural workers employed in 2014-16, up from about 24 percent in 1996-98. In 1990, the average real farm wage for non-supervisory farm and livestock workers was just over half the average real wage in the non-farm economy for non-supervisory occupations in the private sector ($9.8 versus $19.40). In 2019, farm wages ($13.99) were 60% of non-farm wages ($23.51). In other words, the gap between farm and nonfarm wages is slowly narrowing, but remains large. Demographic information about agricultural workers can be found in the U.S. Department of Commerce`s American Community Survey (ACS), Bureau of the Census. This data also allows us to distinguish between workers, managers/supervisors and other occupations in the industry. Agricultural workers have a lower level of education, are more likely to be Hispanic of Mexican descent, and are less likely to be citizens than workers in other agricultural occupations and U.S. wage workers as a whole. However, these trends in labour cost shares differ from product to product. Labour cost shares have declined slightly over the past 20 years for the more labour-intensive fruit and vegetable sectors, although they appear to have seen a new upward trend in recent years. In dairies and nurseries, which also rely heavily on migrant workers, labour costs as a percentage of income are at or near their highest level in 20 years.

The remainder of this page describes only employment, income, demographics and other information for employed agricultural workers. (Information on the well-being of self-employed farmers and their families is available on the RHS theme page on farm household welfare.) In particular, the Department of Labor`s National Survey of Agricultural Workers (NAWS), discussed below, reveals higher proportions of foreign-born, Hispanic, and less educated workers among harvesting and support workers than the ACS (livestock workers are not surveyed in the NAWS).