Speech #960093665

Under present law. the Federal unemployment insurance tax is imposed on farm operators who employ 10 or more agricultural workers in 20 weeks or have a quarterly payroll for agricultural services of at least $20.000. The Federal tax is currently 0.7 percent on the first $6.000 of annual wages. A temporary provision in Federal law excludes from this tax alien farmworkers admitted to the United States pursuant to sections 214(c) and 101(a)(15)(H) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This exclusion. which expires on January 1. 1980. applies both to the payment of the Federal unemployment tax on wages paid to such alien farmworkers and to the counting of these workers in the determination of whether the farm operator has sufficient farmworkers or pays sufficient wages to be subject to the Federal tax for other agricultural workers in his employ. Sections 214(c) and 101(a) (15) (H) of the Immigration and Nationality Act pertain to residents of foreign countries who do not intend to abandon such residency and who are admitted to the United States to work for a temporary period of time during peak agricultural crop seasons. They are admitted only after the Secretary of Labor has determined and certified to the Secretary of State and to the Attorney General that there are not sufficient workers in the United States who are available to do the specific work the nonresident workers are admitted to perform. Because these farmworkers do return to their countries. they would not be able to collect any unemployment compensation to which they might be entitled as a result of their employment in the United States.