Agricultural workers are essential to the supply chain for our daily food and yet, many face harmful work conditions, including garnished wages, and other labor violations. Workers on H-2A visas are particularly vulnerable due to the precarity of their immigration status being tied to their employer. Although worksite inspections are one mechanism to detect such violations, many labor violations affecting agricultural workers go undetected due to limited inspection resources. In this study, we identify multiple state and industry level factors that correlate with H-2A violations identified by the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division using a multilevel zero-inflated negative binomial model. We find that three state-level factors (average farm acreage size, the number of agricultural establishments with less than 20 employees, and higher poverty rates) are correlated with H-2A violations. These findings provide guidance for inspection agencies regarding how to prioritize their limited resources to more effectively inspect agricultural workplaces, thereby improving workplace conditions for H-2A workers.

翻译：农业工人是日常食品供应链中不可或缺的劳动力，但许多人面临有害工作条件，包括工资克扣及其他劳动违规行为。持有H-2A签证的工人因其移民身份与雇主绑定而尤为脆弱。尽管工作场所检查是发现此类违规的机制之一，但由于检查资源有限，许多影响农业工人的劳动违规行为未被发现。本研究采用多层次零膨胀负二项模型，识别了与美国劳工部工资与工时司发现的H-2A违规行为相关的多个州级和行业级因素。研究发现，三个州级因素（平均农场面积、雇员少于20人的农业企业数量、较高贫困率）与H-2A违规行为相关。这些发现为检查机构优化有限资源配置、更有效地检查农业工作场所、从而改善H-2A工人工作条件提供了指导。