[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 32 (Wednesday, February 18, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8218-8219]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-4051]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration
Labor Certification Process for the Temporary Employment of
Aliens in Agriculture and Logging in the United States: 1998 Adverse
Effect Wage Rates, Allowable Charges for Agricultural and Logging
Workers' Meals, and Maximum Travel Subsistence Reimbursement
AGENCY: U.S. Employment Service, Employment and Training
Administration, Labor.
ACTION: Notice of adverse effect wage rates (AEWRs), allowable charges
for meals, and maximum travel subsistence reimbursement for 1998.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Director, U.S. Employment Service, announces 1998 adverse
effect wage rates (AEWRs) for employers seeking nonimmigrant alien (H-
2A) workers for temporary or seasonal agricultural labor or services,
the allowable charges employers seeking nonimmigrant alien workers for
temporary or seasonal agricultural labor or services or logging work
may levy upon their workers when they provide three meals per day, and
the maximum travel subsistence reimbursement which a worker with
receipts may claim in 1998.
AEWRs are the minimum wage rates which the Department of Labor has
determined must be offered and paid to U.S. and alien workers by
employers of nonimmigrant alien agricultural workers (H-2A
visaholders). AEWRs are established to prevent the employment of these
aliens from adversely affecting wages of similarly employed U.S.
workers.
The Director also announces the new rates which covered
agricultural and logging employers may charge their workers for three
daily meals.
Under specified conditions, workers are entitled to reimbursement
for travel subsistence expense. The minimum reimbursement is the charge
for three daily meals as discussed above. The Director here announces
the current maximum reimbursement for workers with receipts.
EFFECTIVE DATE: February 18, 1998.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. John R. Beverly, III, Director,
U.S. Employment Service, U.S. Department of Labor, Room N-4700, 200
Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20210. Telephone: 202-219-
5257 (this is not a toll-free number).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Attorney General may not approve an
employer's petition for admission of temporary alien agricultural (H-
2A) workers to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or
seasonal nature in the United States unless the petitioner has applied
to the Department of Labor (DOL) for an H-2A labor certification. The
labor certification must show that: (1) There are not sufficient U.S.
workers who are able, willing, and qualified and who will be available
at the time and place needed to perform the labor or services involved
in the petition; and (2) the employment of the alien in such labor or
services will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of
workers in the United States similarly employed. 8 U.S.C.
1101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(a), 1184(c), and 1188.
DOL's regulations for the H-2A program require that covered
employers offer and pay their U.S. and H-2A workers no less than the
applicable hourly adverse effect wage rate (AEWR). 20 CFR
655.102(b)(9); see also 20 CFR 655.107. Reference should be made to the
preamble to the July 5, 1989, final rule (54 FR 28037), which explains
in great depth the purpose and history of AEWRs, DOL's discretion in
setting AEWRs, and the AEWR computation methodology at 20 CFR
655.107(a). See also 52 FR 20496, 20502-20505 (June 1, 1987).
A. Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWRs) for 1998
Adverse effect wage rates (AEWRs) are the minimum wage rates which
DOL has determined must be offered and paid to U.S. and alien workers
by employers of nonimmigrant (H-2A) agricultural workers. DOL
emphasizes, however, that such employers must pay the highest of the
AEWR, the applicable prevailing wage or the statutory minimum wage, as
specified in the regulations. 20 CFR 655.102(b)(9). Except as otherwise
provided in 20 CFR Part 655, Subpart B, the regionwide AEWR for all
agricultural employment (except those occupations deemed inappropriate
under the special circumstances provisions of 20 CFR 655.93) for which
temporary alien agricultural labor (H-2A) certification is being
sought, is equal to the annual weighted average hourly wage rate for
field and livestock workers (combined) for the region as published
annually by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA does not provide
data on Alaska). 20 CFR 655.107(a).
The regulation at 20 CFR 655.107(a) requires the Director, U.S.
Employment Service, to publish USDA field and livestock worker
(combined) wage data as AEWRs in a Federal Register notice.
Accordingly, the 1998 AEWRs for work performed on or after the
effective date of this notice, are set forth in the table below:
Table--1998 Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWRs)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
State 1998 AEWR
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.................................................... $6.30
Arizona.................................................... 6.08
Arkansas................................................... 5.98
California................................................. 6.87
Colorado................................................... 6.39
Connecticut................................................ 6.84
Delaware................................................... 6.33
Florida.................................................... 6.77
Georgia.................................................... 6.30
Hawaii..................................................... 8.83
Idaho...................................................... 6.54
Illinois................................................... 7.18
Indiana.................................................... 7.18
Iowa....................................................... 6.86
Kansas..................................................... 7.01
Kentucky................................................... 5.92
Louisiana.................................................. 5.98
Maine...................................................... 6.84
Maryland................................................... 6.33
Massachusetts.............................................. 6.84
Michigan................................................... 6.85
Minnesota.................................................. 6.85
Mississippi................................................ 5.98
Missouri................................................... 6.86
Montana.................................................... 6.54
Nebraska................................................... 7.01
Nevada..................................................... 6.39
New Hampshire.............................................. 6.84
New Jersey................................................. 6.33
New Mexico................................................. 6.08
New York................................................... 6.84
North Carolina............................................. 6.16
North Dakota............................................... 7.01
Ohio....................................................... 7.18
Oklahoma................................................... 5.92
Oregon..................................................... 7.08
Pennsylvania............................................... 6.33
Rhode Island............................................... 6.84
South Carolina............................................. 6.30
South Dakota............................................... 7.01
Tennessee.................................................. 5.92
Texas...................................................... 5.92
Utah....................................................... 6.39
Vermont.................................................... 6.84
Virginia................................................... 6.16
Washington................................................. 7.08
West Virginia.............................................. 5.92
Wisconsin.................................................. 6.85
Wyoming.................................................... 6.54
------------------------------------------------------------------------
B. Allowable Meal Charges
Among the minimum benefits and working conditions which DOL
requires
[[Page 8219]]
employers to offer their alien and U.S. workers in their applications
for temporary logging and H-2A agricultural labor certification is the
provision of three meals per day or free and convenient cooking and
kitchen facilities. 20 CFR 655.102(b)(4) and 655.202(b)(4). Where the
employer provides meals, the job offer must state the charge, if any,
to the worker for meals.
DOL has published at 20 CFR 655.102(b)(4) and 655.111(a) the
methodology for determining the maximum amounts covered H-2A
agricultural employers may charge their U.S. and foreign workers for
meals. The same methodology is applied at 20 CFR 655.202(b)(4) and
655.211(a) to covered H-2B logging employers. These rules provide for
annual adjustments of the previous year's allowable charges based upon
Consumer Price Index (CPI) data.
Each year the maximum charges allowed by 20 CFR 655.102(b)(4) and
655.202(b)(4) are changed in the CPI for all Urban Consumers for Food
(CPI-U for Food) between December of the year just past and December of
the year prior to that. Those regulations and 20 CFR 655.111(a) and
655.211(a) provided that the appropriate Regional Administrator (RA),
Employment and Training Administration, may permit an employer to
charge workers no more than a higher maximum amount for providing them
with three meals a day, if justified and sufficiently document. Each
year, the higher maximum amounts permitted by 20 CFR 655.111(a) and
655.211(a) are changed by the same percentage as the twelve-month
percent change in the CPI-U for Food between December of the year just
past and December of the year prior to that. The regulations require
the director, U.S. Employment Service, to make the annual adjustments
and to cause a notice to be published in the Federal Register each
calendar year, announcing annual adjustments in allowable charges that
may be made by covered agricultural and logging employers for providing
three meals daily to their U.S. and alien workers. The 1997 rates were
published in a notice on February 7, 1997 at 62 FR 5853.
DOL has determined the percentage change between December of 1996
and December of 1997 for the CIP-U for Food was 2.6 percent.
Accordingly, the maximum allowable charges under 20 CFR
655.102(b)(4), 655.202(b)(4), 655.111, and 655.211 were adjusted using
this percentage change, and the new permissible charges for 1998 are as
follows: (1) for 20 CFR 655.102(b)(4) and 655.202(b)(4), the charge, if
any, shall be no more than $7.60 per day, unless the RA has approved a
higher charge pursuant to 20 CFR 655.111 or 655.211(b); for 20 CFR
655.111 and 655.211, the RA may permit an employer to charge workers up
to $9.49 per day for providing them with three meals per day, if the
employer justifies the charge and submits to the RA the documentation
required to support higher charge.
C. Maximum Travel Subsistence Expense
The regulations at 20 CFR 655.102(b)(5) establish that the minimum
daily subsistence expense related to travel expenses, for which a
worker is entitle to reimbursement, is the employer's daily charge for
three meals or, if the employer makes no charge, the amount permitted
under 20 CFR 655.104(b)(4). The regulation is silent about the maximum
amount to which a qualifying worker is entitled.
The Department, in Field Memorandum 42-94, established that the
maximum is the meals component of the standard CONUS (continental
United States) per diem rate established by the General Services
Administration (GSA) and published at 41 CFR Ch. 301. The CONUS meal
component is now $30.00 per day.
Workers who qualify for travel reimbursement are entitled to
reimbursement up to the CONUS meal rate for related subsistence when
they provide receipts. In determining the appropriate amount of
subsistence reimbursement, the employer may use the GSA system under
which a traveler qualifies for meal expense reimbursement per quarter
of a day. Thus, a worker whose travel occurred during two quarters of a
day is entitled, with receipts, to a maximum reimbursement of $15.00.
If a worker has no receipts, the employer is not obligated to
reimburse above the minimum stated at 20 CFR 655.102(b)(4) as specified
above.
Signed at Washington, DC, this 11th day of February, 1998.
John R. Beverly, III,
Director, U.S. Employment Service.
[FR Doc. 98-4051 Filed 2-17-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-30-M
