Rampant wage theft and employer lawbreaking in industries that employ H-2B workers: At least $1.8 billion stolen from workers in industries with a high prevalence of H-2B workers, fiscal years 2000–2021
| Industry | Cases | Cases with violations | Employees involved in violation | Employees owed back wages | Back wages assessed (2021$) | Average back wages owed per employee (2021$) | Civil money penalties assessed (2021$) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All seven industries | 225,227 | 180,451 | 1,835,805 | 1,666,195 | $1,792,259,236 | $1,076 | $114,791,387 |
| Landscaping services | 5,705 | 4,289 | 64,734 | 58,404 | $60,088,422 | $1,029 | $4,833,676 |
| Janitorial services | 11,660 | 9,391 | 105,604 | 96,279 | $96,808,594 | $1,006 | $3,289,109 |
| Hotels and motels | 22,469 | 18,501 | 150,452 | 140,864 | $86,691,426 | $615 | $8,430,597 |
| Forestry | 1,479 | 1,102 | 13,089 | 10,860 | $10,781,520 | $993 | $4,262,217 |
| Food services | 108,244 | 88,765 | 839,171 | 752,417 | $654,970,169 | $870 | $64,575,989 |
| Construction | 68,012 | 52,441 | 591,131 | 542,034 | $847,882,693 | $1,564 | $20,515,880 |
| Amusement | 7,658 | 5,962 | 71,624 | 65,337 | $35,036,411 | $536 | $8,883,919 |
Notes: Tables include all violations of laws enforced in the selected industries by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. Dollar amounts reported in this table have been adjusted for inflation to constant 2021 dollars using the CPI-U-RS. As a result, the dollar amounts presented here may differ from the amounts reported in the source data. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
Source: EPI analysis of U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, “Industries with High Prevalence of H-2B Workers” [data tables for fiscal years 2000–2021].
This chart appears in:
- Federal labor standards enforcement in agriculture: Data reveal the biggest violators and raise new questions about how to improve and target efforts to protect farmworkers
- As the H-2B visa program grows, the need for reforms that protect workers is greater than ever: Employers stole $1.8 billion from workers in the industries that employed most H-2B workers over the past two decades
- Testimony prepared for the U.S. House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections for a hearing on “Second-class workers – Assessing H-2 visa programs’ impact on workers”
- Costa Senate Testimony just for charts
Previous chart: « Nearly all H-2B workers are employed in a small number of occupations: Top 10 H-2B occupations by number of USCIS-approved petitions, fiscal year 2021