ALL NCGA Members
New AEWR Rule – Public Comment Period Ends at Midnight on Monday, December 1st
***INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING YOUR COMMENTS***
Dear NCGA Member:
December 1st at midnight is the deadline to submit comments to US DOL on the new H-2A Adverse Effect Wage Rate regulation that was published and became effective on October 2, 2025. Overall, the new regulation is an improvement for American farmers who use the H-2A program and it is critically important that US DOL receives comments in support of the new regulation.
The United Farmworkers Union filed suit against US DOL in federal court in Fresno, California on Friday, November 21st in opposition to the new regulations in an effort to overturn the new AEWR methodology. We believe that thoughtful criticisms will be considered and supportive comments from farmers would be welcomed by US DOL and the Trump Administration. Please see below a few concerns in the new regulations that will need to be addressed.
The information needed to prepare a comment letter and the instructions on how to submit comments are below. Please see below a summary of the major elements of the new regulations that we believe need comments from our NCGA members. We encourage you to take time to prepare your own comment letter and submit it to US DOL before the 11:59 p.m. deadline on December 1, 2025.
Specific information and data about your own experiences and how the new regulations impact you carry the most weight. If you were considering quitting at the end of this year until the new regulations were announced you should write that in your comments if you are comfortable sharing, I think any information you provide that can help highlight how close our country is to losing are family farms and families to history the better! It’s real and we must tell it. You do not need to comment on every element of the new regulations, but the more comments you can provide the better.
The most effective comments you can submit are personal and specific to your farm, rather than a “form” letter. In your comments, you should explain which provisions you support and why, and if you think some provisions should be modified, explain why those provisions are problematic and how they should be changed. Additionally, if you are unsure about how the new regulations would apply to specific circumstances in your operation, it would be good to pose those questions to US DOL in your comments. Those are particularly effective when it appears that the new regulations would impose compliance difficulties and inefficiencies in your operations. Just remember, if you are generally appreciative of the changes to the wage regulations, positive comments that make it clear you support the changes should be stated at the beginning and end of your comments.
IMPORTANT: Please remember your comments are part of the “public record” and will be visible to anyone who cares to look, so be careful not to include any comments, or business/financial/personal information that you do not want in the public domain.
***CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EXAMPLE COMMENT TEMPLATE!***
Comments should be addressed to:
Brian Pasternak
Administrator, Office of Foreign Labor Certification
Employment and Training Administration
U.S. Department of Labor
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20210
Re: RIN 1205-AC24 / ETA-2025-0008
Submitting your comments:
In the search box, enter “1205-AC24” and click “Search”
If the search returns “no results”, click on the “Dockets” tab below the search bar and that will bring up the AEWR Regulation.
Click on the title of the Regulation “Adverse Effect Wage Rate Methodology for the Temporary Employment of H-2A Nonimmigrants in Non-Range Occupations in the United States”
Click on the blue box “Open for Comments” and that will take you to a new page.
Then click on the blue box “Comment”
a. The best approach is to type your comments into a Word document and then you can attach the document on this webpage. But you can also type your comments directly into the webpage, although you cannot save your work, so you have to type your entire comments in one session.
b. Be sure to click the blue box “Submit Comment” when you are finished.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact NCGA at 910-245-2969.