Labor Department won back pay for guest farmworkers, but a fifth never reached them
A November 14, 2024 GAO report (GAO-25-106389) found the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division concluded 2,857 investigations of H-2A employers from fiscal 2018 through 2023, a period in which DOL certified 92,051 H-2A applications; 84% of investigations found at least one violation, affecting 66,819 workers. Pay violations were most common (42%), followed by unsafe transportation (30%) and illegal fees and charges (9%). WHD assessed over $20 million in back wages, but roughly 20% did not get back to workers, partly because WHD lacks contact information for workers who have returned home. DOL, operating with 773 investigators in fiscal 2023, agreed to GAO's recommendation; it remains open.
Roughly 20 percent of back wages assessed in the period of our review did not get returned to workers.
Recommendation 2: 'The Secretary of Labor should ensure that the Administrator, Wage and Hour Division, identifies and evaluates options, including the costs and benefits of those options, for reducing the resource burden on WHD in its efforts to find workers to return back wages.' Status: Open; DOL agreed.
Contacted and made an on-record admission — exact wording not on record.
No outcome recorded yet.