Perdue Farms Class Action Lawsuit Settlement: Payouts and Deadlines

The Perdue Farms class action lawsuit settlement is part of a combined $398.05 million deal resolving claims that Perdue and roughly 20 other poultry producers conspired to suppress wages for plant workers. Perdue’s share is $60.65 million. If you worked a non-supervisory job at a Perdue or other settling company’s poultry plant, hatchery, or feed mill between January 1, 2000, and July 20, 2021, you can file a claim at poultrywages.com. The deadline was extended to June 30, 2026, and the first payments were scheduled to go out May 15, 2026.¹

Who Qualifies for a Payment

The settlement class covers anyone who worked at a poultry processing complex, plant, hatchery, or feed mill for any of the settling defendants between January 1, 2000, and July 20, 2021.¹ Eligibility is limited to non-supervisory workers: the people on the processing lines who hang, slaughter, and debone chickens and turkeys, along with maintenance and related support staff.²

You do not have to have worked for Perdue specifically. Every settling poultry producer is part of the same claims process. The settling defendants include:

Tyson Foods and Keystone Foods — $115.5 million
Perdue Farms — $60.65 million
Sanderson Farms — $38.3 million
Wayne Farms — $31.5 million
Pilgrim’s Pride — $29 million
Koch Foods — $18.5 million
Cargill — $15 million
Mountaire Farms — $13.5 million
Foster Poultry Farms — $13.3 million
Simmons Foods — $12 million
Butterball — $8.5 million
Case Foods — $8.5 million
Amick Farms — $6.25 million
George’s — $5.8 million
Fieldale Farms — $5.5 million
Allen Harim Foods — $5 million
O.K. Foods — $4.75 million
Jennie-O Turkey Store — $3.5 million
Peco Foods — $3 million³

The affected workforce spans more than 200 processing plants, hatcheries, and feed mills across the continental United States.²

How Much You Can Expect to Receive

There is no flat per-person payment. Each qualifying worker’s share is calculated on a pro rata basis, based on the number of class members who file claims, how long you worked during the covered period, and how much you earned during that time.⁴

The $398.05 million total is reduced before distribution. Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher approved $132.6 million in attorneys’ fees, representing 33.3% of the fund.⁵ Approximately $5.4 million in litigation expenses was requested, along with notice and administration costs and service awards for the class representatives.⁴ What remains is divided among the workers who file valid claims.

Because payments depend on how many people claim and each person’s individual work history, no fixed dollar figure applies. Longer tenure and higher wages during the covered period produce larger shares.

How to File a Claim and Key Deadlines

Claims are filed online at poultrywages.com. The original deadline of October 29, 2025, was extended to June 30, 2026. The first round of distribution payments was scheduled to begin May 15, 2026.¹

If you no longer have pay stubs or employment records, the claims process still allows you to file. The settlement administrator uses employer records where available to verify eligibility and calculate payments.

What the Lawsuit Alleged

Jien, et al. v. Perdue Farms, Inc., et al. was filed on August 30, 2019, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, case number 1:19-cv-02521.⁶ Named plaintiff Judy Jien and others alleged that beginning as early as 2000, the poultry processors violated the Sherman Act by conspiring to hold down wages and benefits for non-supervisory production and maintenance workers.

According to the complaint, the scheme worked three ways. Senior executives allegedly held off-the-books meetings where they exchanged compensation information and agreed on pay levels. Processors allegedly funneled detailed, non-public wage data through surveys run by consulting firms Agri Stats and Webber, Meng, Sahl and Company (WMS), letting them monitor whether competitors held to agreed-upon numbers. Plant managers allegedly traded real-time wage data with counterparts at rival companies by phone and electronic listservs, including planned raises and future compensation.³ An Oxfam report cited in the litigation noted that poultry plant workers earn wages placing them near or below the poverty line.²

Judge Gallagher granted final approval of the poultry producer settlements on June 5, 2025. The final defendant, Agri Stats, settled through an injunctive relief agreement approved on March 10, 2026, which required the data firm to eliminate plant-level labor cost fields from its broiler chicken reports and aggregate that data instead. That approval ended the class action more than six years after it was filed.²

Perdue’s Response

Perdue Farms reached its own agreement in December 2022, announced formally in March 2023. The company denied the allegations, saying the settlement was meant “to avoid the expense of protracted litigation and put these claims behind us.”⁷ Every other poultry producer defendant also settled without admitting wrongdoing. WMS settled with no monetary payment, agreeing instead to cooperate with the plaintiffs.⁸

Other Perdue Lawsuits That Are Not Part of This Settlement

If you’re a Perdue contract chicken grower rather than a plant worker, this settlement does not cover you. A separate proposed class action, Parker v. Perdue Farms Inc., filed in July 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, alleges Perdue misclassified its farmers as independent contractors while controlling nearly every aspect of their operations.⁹ As of 2026, the court granted Perdue’s motion for summary judgment on the declaratory relief claim, but Fair Labor Standards Act claims for minimum wage and overtime violations remain pending, along with state law claims for breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation.¹⁰

An earlier case, Trotter v. Perdue Farms, Inc., filed in 1999 in the District of Delaware on behalf of roughly 15,000 chicken processing employees, alleged Perdue failed to pay workers for time spent putting on, taking off, and cleaning required protective equipment. That case settled in 2002 for $10 million. The U.S. Department of Labor pursued a separate case over the same practices and reached its own $10 million settlement.¹¹ Neither of those cases is connected to the wage-fixing settlement now paying out to plant workers.

1
Poultry Wages Settlement. Poultry Wages Settlement – Home
2
Cohen Milstein. Groundbreaking Wage Suppression Case Against Poultry Industry Ends With Landmark Settlements
3
Hagens Berman. Poultry Chicken Processing Wage Fixing Antitrust
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Poultry Wages Settlement. Poultry Wages Settlement – Notice
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Cohen Milstein. Poultry Workers Get Final OK on $398M Wage Fixing Deals
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Cohen Milstein. Jien, et al. v. Perdue Farms, Inc., et al.
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Meat + Poultry. Final Approval Submitted for Perdue Farms Wage Fixing Lawsuit
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ClassAction.org. Poultry Producer Settlements Totaling Nearly $400M Resolve Lawsuit Over Alleged Wage Suppression Conspiracy
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Bloomberg Law. Perdue Misclassified Chicken Farmers as Contractors, Suit Says
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Justia. Parker v. Perdue Foods LLC – Order on Summary Judgment
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Cohen Milstein. Trotter v. Perdue Farms, Inc.