In a citrus grove, a picking crew can include people hired locally and people brought in through the H-2A program. The paperwork differs; the work in the row may not. A new state law makes that overlap matter on the payroll.
Assembly Bill 2646, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and authored by Assemblymember Maggy Krell, sets a separate minimum for specified agricultural workers. It covers H-2A employees and domestic workers doing corresponding work alongside them, according to the Western Growers Association’s account of the law.
A state floor beside the federal rate
The H-2A rate cited before the change was $16.90 an hour. Supporters say the measure restores a wage floor that had been reduced and helps some of the state’s lowest-paid workers; the ABC30 report describes that case for the bill.
The state action follows a separate federal rate-setting process. In August, the U.S. Department of Labor announced updated Adverse Effect Wage Rates, which took effect immediately in California and most other states, according to California Citrus Mutual. The two schedules make the wage calculation less like a single number on a contract and more like a moving part of labor planning.
The payroll question in the citrus row
For citrus operations, the useful distinction is between a crew’s hiring channel and the work its members perform. A local employee does not fall outside the rule simply because the worker was not recruited through H-2A; the corresponding-work provision is what brings that employee into the calculation.
The floor will also be adjusted annually using the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment. That gives the new state minimum a mechanism for changing over time, rather than leaving it as a fixed figure in a labor budget.
The immediate arithmetic is only part of the work. Growers and managers will need to connect the wage rule to crew records and covered tasks, especially where domestic and H-2A workers share a job.