Brown Food Settlement: Who Qualifies, Payouts, and Deadlines

If you worked at a beef or pork processing plant in the continental U.S. between January 1, 2000 and February 27, 2024, you may be entitled to a payment from the Brown v. JBS wage-fixing settlement, which has reached roughly $202.8 million across 18 corporate defendants. To receive money, you need to submit a participation form by March 26, 2027 at BeefPorkWages.com. A final approval hearing is set for November 13, 2026, and payments are expected to start on April 27, 2027.

Who Qualifies as a Class Member

The class covers hourly and salaried workers employed at beef and pork processing plants operated by the defendants in the continental United States from January 1, 2000 through February 27, 2024. These are the people who slaughter, age, and prepare meat for distribution.¹

Certain positions are excluded: plant managers, human resources staff, clerical workers, guards, salespeople, and officers or directors of the defendant companies.¹

A narrower “Subclass” covers workers employed between January 1, 2014 and February 27, 2024. Subclass members qualify for an extra payment out of a separate $11.25 million pool, on top of anything they receive from the main fund. The subclass exists because some claims, particularly those tied to the WMS survey conspiracy, were brought against specific defendants over that shorter window.²

The defendants whose plants are covered include Tyson Foods, JBS USA, Cargill and Cargill Meat Solutions, National Beef Packing, Hormel Foods, Rochelle Foods, Quality Pork Processors, Seaboard Foods, American Foods Group, Agri Beef, Washington Beef, Perdue Farms, Indiana Packers, Greater Omaha Packing, and Triumph Foods, along with Smithfield Foods, which has not yet settled.³

Note that this case covers red meat workers only. Poultry plant workers were the class in a separate lawsuit, Jien v. Perdue Farms, which reached its own $398 million in settlements.⁴

How to File a Claim

File a participation form online at BeefPorkWages.com, or mail one to the settlement administrator, A.B. Data, Ltd., at the address listed on the settlement website. The deadline is March 26, 2027.⁵

Some class members received a direct notice by email or mail and may already be in the system. If you didn’t get a notice but believe you qualify, file a form anyway. Without one, you won’t be eligible for a payment.⁵

If You Want to Opt Out or Object

The deadline to opt out or file an objection is September 29, 2026. To opt out, mail a signed letter to the settlement administrator listing which specific settlements you want to be excluded from. To object, send a signed letter explaining your reasons to both the settlement administrator and the Clerk of the U.S. District Court in Denver. If you plan to speak at the final approval hearing, say so in your objection letter.⁵

Opting out means you keep the right to sue on your own but give up any share of these settlements. Doing nothing means you stay in the class and are bound by the outcome, but you still need to file a claim form to get paid.

Key Deadlines at a Glance

September 29, 2026: last day to opt out or file an objection
November 13, 2026, 9:00 a.m.: final approval hearing before Chief Judge Philip A. Brimmer
March 26, 2027: last day to submit a claim form
April 27, 2027: expected start of payments, if the settlements receive final approval

³⁵

How Much You Could Receive

Payments are proportional, not flat. What you get depends on how long you worked at a defendant’s plant during the class period and how much you earned there. The total number of valid claims filed will also shape the per-person amount, and no per-worker estimate has been published.²

The main class will share roughly $191.55 million after non-monetary settlements are set aside. Subclass members are also eligible for an additional distribution from the separate $11.25 million pool tied to the WMS, Perdue, Seaboard, and Triumph settlements.⁶

Deductions come out of the fund before individual checks are cut. Plaintiffs’ attorneys have requested up to 33.33 percent of the total in fees. The court may also approve up to $6 million in litigation costs, up to $4 million in administrative costs, and service awards of up to $30,000 each for the three named class representatives. Payments will be treated as wages, so applicable taxes will be withheld.²

Which Companies Are Paying and How Much

Eighteen defendants have settled, for a combined total of roughly $202.8 million. The individual amounts:³

Tyson Foods: $72.5 million
JBS USA Food Company: $55 million
Cargill and Cargill Meat Solutions: $29.75 million
National Beef Packing: $14.2 million
Hormel Foods, Rochelle Foods, and Quality Pork Processors: $13.5 million combined
Seaboard Foods: $10 million
American Foods Group: $4 million
Agri Beef and Washington Beef: $1.4 million combined
Perdue Farms: $1.25 million
Indiana Packers: $1.1 million
Greater Omaha Packing: $100,000

Three defendants settled without paying cash. WMS, Triumph Foods, and Agri Stats each agreed to cooperate with the plaintiffs by producing documents, providing witness testimony, and assisting with trial preparation. Agri Stats also agreed to remove certain wage-related information from its pork processing reports.⁵

What the Case Is About

The lawsuit, Ron Brown, et al. v. JBS USA Food Company, et al. (Case No. 1:22-cv-02946), was filed in November 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. The plaintiffs allege that 15 red meat processors, responsible together for more than 80 percent of red meat sold in the country, along with two consulting firms, violated Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act by conspiring to fix and depress worker pay going back to at least January 2000.⁷¹

According to the complaint, the processors exchanged detailed, nonpublic wage and benefit data through an annual “Red Meat Industry Compensation Survey” administered by the consulting firm WMS, and through the data firm Agri Stats. The survey was paired with annual in-person meetings where executives allegedly discussed and coordinated pay levels. The plaintiffs also allege the processors entered “no poach” agreements and communicated directly about pay through executive channels.⁸⁷

Settling defendants have not admitted liability. The settlements resolve their part of the case in exchange for the payments and cooperation described above.

What’s Still Unresolved

Smithfield Foods, Inc. and Smithfield Packaged Meats Corporation are the only defendants who have not settled. Litigation against them is active, but no trial date has been publicly scheduled.⁵ Any future recovery from Smithfield would be handled separately from the current settlement pool. If you worked at a Smithfield plant during the class period, filing a claim now still preserves your eligibility to share in the existing settlements against the other defendants.

1
ClassAction.org. Preliminary Approval Filing, Brown v. JBS USA Food Company
2
ClassAction.org. Beef Pork Settlement Notice
3
Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. Red Meat Processing Wage Fixing Antitrust
4
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. Jien, Et Al. v. Perdue Farms, Inc., Et Al.
5
BeefPorkWages.com. Notice of Class Action Settlement
6
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. Announcement of $202.7 Million in Settlements for Beef and Pork Processing Plant Workers
7
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. Brown v. JBS USA Food Company, Et Al.
8
ClassAction.org. Class Action Complaint, Brown v. JBS USA Food Company