Although agriculture is one of the nation's most hazardous industries, about half of all states allow agricultural employers to provide little or no workers' compensation coverage for migrant and seasonal farmworkers.

Many states do not require agricultural employers to provide workers' compensation coverage for migrant and seasonal farmworkers. The states are almost evenly split between those that provide all or most migrant and seasonal farmworkers with workers' compensation coverage and those that require little or no coverage for this workforce.

Specifically, only 13 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands require employers to cover seasonal agricultural workers to the same extent as all other workers. These jurisdictions are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. In an additional 13 states (including Florida and New York), only small farmers are exempt from providing coverage to their migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Moreover, employers who hire legal temporary foreign workers under the H-2A visa program are required to provide workers' compensation insurance or equivalent benefits to their employees.