Pre-Survey Letter

[Date]

Dear Mr./Ms. [Lastname]:

Labor issues remain a concern in the agriculture industry as producers and their operations are impacted by employment regulations and expenses. The Agricultural Labor Survey, conducted by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, provides important data used to establish minimum wage rates for domestic and foreign agricultural workers, administer farm labor recruitment and placement service programs, and assist legislators in determining labor policies.

Your operation has been selected to participate in the [Month] Agricultural Labor Survey. Your participation is vitally important, as your operation represents many others like it in [State] and around the nation.

Because we want to make it as simple as possible for you to participate, we are offering you a number of options for reporting your information:

• You can fill out and mail back the enclosed survey form by [Date].

• You can follow the enclosed instructions for using our secure online response system.

• Or, if you would prefer to provide the information by phone or in person, a representative from the NASS [State] Field Office will contact you between [Date] and [Date].

You will be asked to provide information on the total number of hired workers, average hours worked, and wage rates paid to workers. NASS will combine your responses with those of your fellow producers nationwide and will publish the results in the quarterly Farm Labor report, to be released [Date]. This, and all NASS reports, are available online at www.nass.usda.gov.

Please be assured that your responses to this survey will be kept completely confidential, as required by federal law. NASS safeguards the privacy of all respondents and publishes only state- and national-level data, ensuring that no individual operation or grower can be identified.

Thank you in advance for your support of our programs and [State] agriculture. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact [Firstname Lastname] at (800) XXX-XXXX.

Sincerely,

[Director’s Name]

Director

Enclosures