H-2A Worker Minimum Wage, AB 2646 (Krell, 2026)

In 2026, the California Legislature passed and Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 2646 (Krell, D-Sacramento) setting a higher California minimum wage for certain non-California resident agricultural employees and certain California-resident employees working in conjunction with them.

What AB 2646 does:

• AB 2646 sets a minimum wage of $19.75/hour for non-California resident agricultural employees whose employment is approved by either the Department of Industrial Relations or the Labor and Workforce Development Agency (“approved agricultural employees”).  Foreign workers employed in the U.S. (and California) on H-2A temporary agricultural worker visas are the only class of agricultural workers who fit this description.
• AB 2646 also requires the payment of this super-minimum wage to “corresponding employees” engaged in agriculture performing the same, or substantially similar, work during the same time period as an approved agricultural employee employed by the same employer in the same county.
• The AB 2646 super-minimum wage will be adjusted upward on January 1, 2027 and on each subsequent January 1 by the social security cost-of-living adjustment for that year.
• AB 2646 is effective on Jan. 1, 2027.  

What AB 2646 does not do:

• Certain media and social media outlets have reported that AB 2646 imposes the $19.75/hour minimum wage on agriculture sector-wide.
• AB 2646 is not an agriculture sector-wide minimum wage; it applies only to approved and corresponding agricultural employees described above.
• The applicable minimum wage for agricultural employees who are neither approved nor corresponding agricultural employees (the bulk of California’s agricultural workforce) will continue to be covered by California’s state-wide minimum wage of $16.90/hour ($17.40/hour on Jan. 1, 2027).