Every year, tens of thousands of seasonal farmworkers come from abroad to work in North Carolina, harvesting everything from tobacco to sweet potatoes. But this year, those migrant workers returned to do the same work for less pay.
On a Monday afternoon, WFAE joined Maria Mejia and Leticia Zavala as they traveled to visit a group of farmworkers who live in Caswell County, about an hour north of Durham.
Mejia and Zavala work with El Futuro Es Nuestro, a nonprofit that advocates for migrant workers and their rights. During harvest season, they spend their days visiting farms throughout North Carolina.
“We'll go to one farm where the workers are having a hard time with being allowed to install air conditioners,” Zavala said before the visit.
When farms cannot find enough U.S. workers to fill seasonal agricultural jobs, they can hire temporary workers from other countries through the federal H-2A visa program. North Carolina is one of the largest users of the program, bringing in more than 22,000 workers this year, most of them from Mexico.
H-2A workers are guaranteed a minimum wage set by the federal government. But last October, the Trump administration lowered that wage in North Carolina from $16.16 to $12.78 an hour.
The U.S. Department of Labor also began allowing employers to deduct housing costs from workers' wages.
“Under the new H-2A rules, the current administration allows farmers to discount a certain amount per hour from their wages for housing, and here in North Carolina, it's $1.69 per hour,” Zavala said.
When Mejia and Zavala arrived at the Caswell County farm, Mejia gathered workers to discuss the changes and encouraged them to advocate for themselves.
“If we don't value ourselves, no one else will,” Mejia told them in Spanish.
One worker said speaking up can be difficult. He said workers are often reminded that they signed a contract and were informed of its terms before arriving.
Workers raise concerns about housing
The workers also raised concerns about their living conditions, particularly during North Carolina's summer heat.
Air conditioning is not required in housing provided to migrant farmworkers in North Carolina, Zavala said.
“Many workers, if they have air conditioning, it's because they've either purchased it themselves, they pitched in and bought something together, or they were able to get one donated from a church or a nonprofit or something like that,” she said.
At the farm WFAE visited, eight workers shared a two-bedroom house. Three or four workers slept in each bedroom, but only the downstairs bedroom had air conditioning.
One worker said the people staying in the downstairs bedroom had access to an air conditioner, while the others did not.
The workers also shared one kitchen. One of them showed WFAE a stove with a broken burner, leaving three for the group.
Carol Brooke, an attorney with the North Carolina Justice Center who helps H-2A workers recover unpaid wages and compensation for missing hours, said farmworker housing is required to undergo inspections.
“The housing is required to be inspected, but unfortunately, that inspection happens before it's occupied,” Brooke said.
She said that can contribute to problems with overcrowding and poor living conditions once workers arrive.
Brooke also said the new housing deductions do not require growers to spend that money on improving workers' accommodations.
“There's not a requirement that growers use it in any particular way,” she said.
Housing costs increase with hours worked
Under the new wage structure, employers can deduct $1.69 for housing for each hour an H-2A worker works. That means workers who put in more hours also pay more for the same housing.
“The fact that the housing charge is based on the number of hours people work in a work week doesn't make a lot of sense when you think about it in terms of actual compensation for housing that is being occupied,” Brooke said.
At the Caswell County farmhouse, Zavala sat with the workers and calculated how much they were collectively paying for the house.
The total came to about $473 a week, or nearly $1,900 a month.
As the harvest season picks up and the workers put in more hours, that amount could increase.
For workers who came to the United States hoping to save money or send earnings home to their families, the combination of lower wages and housing deductions leaves them with less money at the end of the season.
WFAE contacted the North Carolina Growers Association for comment but did not receive a response.
For the workers at the Caswell County farm, the changes raise a larger question: Is coming to North Carolina through the H-2A program still worth it?
For one worker, the answer is yes.
“It's worth coming here and fighting,” he told WFAE in Spanish. He said he is fighting not only for himself and his family in Mexico, but in hopes that conditions will improve for the workers who come after him.
