The backpay calendar your H-2A seasonal filings need after the AEWR ruling

The date to mark is the Department of Labor's notice window after the court order. The order kept the wage rule in force temporarily while the agency builds a replacement, instead of invalidating it outright. The workaround is a dated file that can show the wage, the job, and the comparison.

The court set the agency's task

The H-2A wage-rule lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. On August 26, 2026, a California district court ruled that the Department of Labor's interim final rule setting H-2A AEWRs was unlawful. Judge Kirk E. Sherriff in Fresno required the Department of Labor to quickly create a new H-2A wage-rate calculation method that conforms to the decision.

The backpay file should be built before the notice lands

The order required the Department of Labor to tell employers that back pay could be due to H-2A workers and U.S. farmworkers if later applicable rates are higher than wages already paid. The question is whether the paid amount can be reconciled to a later, higher rate, not just whether the petition met the wage rule.

Keep the timeline and the file together with a checklist.

• Identify every affected H-2A job order and petition that used the challenged wage rule.
• Log the court order and the AEWRs in effect for each worksite.
• Monitor the Labor Department's seven-day deadline to alert state workforce agencies, employers, and the public that wage adjustments may be owed to eligible H-2A and U.S. farmworkers in matching jobs who worked during the backpay window. Track its initial status report due within two weeks explaining the steps taken and the timeline expected.
• Document offered wages, paid wages, job duties, worksite, and corresponding U.S. farmworker jobs for each filing.

The identification step is the hardest because the affected population is not always obvious. A worksite may have multiple job orders, a season may span multiple petitions, and a wage may have been set before the order. Separate each job order from each worker group, then link both to the wage record.

Assign an owner for the file. That owner should collect the petition, the payroll export, the job description, and the worksite notes in a shared place. The record should still answer the payment question after a team member leaves.

Keep the file readable for a reviewer who has not seen the season. Use plain labels for the wage, the duty, the site, and the worker group. Add a note when a label is unclear.

Payroll records should show the rate, the hours, the pay period, and the worker group. Job descriptions should list the duties, the worksite, and the seasonal window. The comparison jobs should be identifiable by duty, location, and season, not by a label alone.

The wage record should be able to answer the payment questions without a new rule. What rate was offered? What rate was paid? Which later rate would apply to the same work? The record should show any change by worksite.

Keep the offered wage separate from the paid wage. A petition may state a rate, payroll may show another, and a later rate may change the comparison. Preserve the source for each number.

The corresponding jobs should be described in the same language as the petition. If the petition describes a duty, the comparison should use the same description. If the petition names a worksite, the comparison should use the same worksite. Note any worksite change and its date.

The next dates are the agency's, not the court's

Keep a dated log for the agency's dates. Note when the notice appears, what it says, and when the status report is due. If the notice uses different terms for the affected workers, copy the terms into the file for review.