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days before leaving office, imposes a minimum wage rate of S4.23 an hour, and is based on the national average hourly pay for pieceworkers in agricultural jobs.
“This wage rate,” said Coleman, “is completely unrealistic. It is well above the federal minimum wage of S3.35. It will arbitrarily increase the cost of doign business without necessarily providing any increase in protection for U. S. workers.”
“This regulation,” said Coleman, “sets an artificially high nationwide rate which does not bear any direct relationship to the availability of local farmworkers or prevailing local wage rates. This rate will be imposed even where no apparent justification exists for attempting to prevent an ‘adverse effect’ on the wages of similarly employed U. S. workers.”
“This is particularly true in the northern Shenandoah Valley and in Southside Virginia,” said Coleman, “where local farm labor is difficult to obtain.”
In his letter to President Reagan and Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan. Coleman recommended further study of the federal rate in order for producers and growers to be able to present the Labor Department with economic data which would justify their objections.
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