California’s new H-2A wage law sets 2027 greenhouse staffing test

California has enacted a new wage floor for a defined group of agricultural employees that will affect greenhouse businesses using the H-2A temporary-worker programme or employing qualifying local workers alongside them. Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2646 (Chapter 956, Statutes of 2026) on 30 September 2026. The chaptered text adds Section 1208 to California’s Labor Code. The law takes effect on 1 January 2027 and sets a $19.75-per-hour base rate, subject to a cost-of-living adjustment beginning that same January.

The measure is not a universal $19.75 minimum wage for every agricultural employee in California. Farm Employers Labor Service (FELS), in an analysis published on 6 October, explains that it applies to approved nonresident agricultural workers, a class it identifies with the H-2A visa programme, and to certain corresponding employees. Western Growers has separately reported the governor’s signing of the bill.

Which greenhouse employees are covered?

Section 1208(c)(4) defines a corresponding employee as a California resident engaged in agriculture who performs the same or substantially similar work during the same period, for the same employer and in the same county as an approved agricultural employee. It is this overlap—not simply working in a greenhouse—that matters when employers assess potential exposure.

For a commercial greenhouse operation, the practical question is whether its seasonal staffing model includes approved H-2A workers and whether any other employees meet that corresponding-work definition. Operators may need to review job descriptions, payroll classifications, worker assignments and recruitment budgets ahead of the 2027 effective date. These are compliance-planning implications, not evidence that all greenhouse payrolls will rise by the same amount.

The 2027 payable amount may differ from $19.75

FELS says the new rate is indexed to the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment on 1 January 2027 and each following January. Consequently, $19.75 is the statutory base, not necessarily the final applicable 2027 rate. Employers should confirm the updated figure and applicable wage rules before issuing job orders or finalising payroll budgets.

The total number of California greenhouse employees who will be covered has not been established in the source material reviewed. Neither the sector-wide cost effect nor individual employer obligations can be calculated from the headline hourly rate alone. The enacted Section 1208 defines coverage by workers’ residency, approved temporary or seasonal agricultural work and the corresponding-employee test. An employer should check those statutory conditions alongside any applicable federal H-2A wage obligations before finalising its 2027 budget.