Among the companies that settled the meatpacking wage case, one carries more than a third of the tab. Tyson Foods agreed to $72.5 million, the largest single share of a $202.7 million total that resolves claims by beef and pork plant workers, and the next two payers, JBS and Cargill, bring the top three to nearly four-fifths of the fund.
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One fund, many payers: how the $202.7 million divides
A summary from Open Class Actions lists what each settling defendant agreed to put in: Tyson $72.5 million, JBS $55 million, Cargill $29.75 million, National Beef $14.2 million, Hormel $13.5 million, Seaboard $10 million, American Foods Group $4 million, Agri Beef $1.4 million, Perdue $1.25 million and Indiana Packers $1.1 million. The aggregator’s list sums to the $202.7 million total.
The arithmetic behind the headline is simple. Tyson’s $72.5 million is about 35.8 percent of the total. JBS at $55 million is roughly 27.1 percent, and Cargill at $29.75 million is roughly 14.7 percent. Together the three pay $157.25 million, leaving $45.45 million for everyone else. Those per-company numbers come from the aggregator’s summary rather than from the court notice, so they are best read as reported figures until the administrator publishes its own table.
Cohen Milstein, a firm on the plaintiffs’ side, separately reports that Hormel’s settlement is $13.5 million and that the settlements as a group total $202.7 million, which matches the aggregator on those two points. The same page groups Seaboard Foods and Triumph Foods at $10 million combined, so the smallest shares are the least settled figures in the public record.
What the plaintiffs say the meatpackers did
The lawsuit, Brown v. JBS USA Food Co., is pending in federal court in Colorado. Its central charge, as class counsel’s announcement puts it, is that the processors agreed with each other to keep wages low for plant workers. Cohen Milstein’s case page fills in the alleged mechanics: secret compensation surveys, meetings among executives, data exchanges through the firm Agri Stats and no-poach agreements, together said to touch about 80 percent of U.S. red meat processing.
These are allegations that the settlements resolve for the settling companies. Neither source describes a court finding that any of them broke the law, and a settlement of this kind is a payment to end a claim rather than a verdict.
Four defendants are still in the case according to the announcement: Agri Stats, Greater Omaha Packing, Smithfield Foods and Smithfield Packaged Meats. Money from any later outcome with them would be separate from the $202.7 million.
Two pools inside the total
The $202.7 million is really two funds. Nine defendants account for $191.45 million and cover workers employed between Jan. 1, 2000, and Feb. 27, 2024. Two others account for $11.25 million and cover a shorter subclass period that starts on Jan. 1, 2014. A defendant’s share therefore pays for the class period it belongs to, not for every year of the industry’s history.
The sources read do not say which two companies sit in the subclass pool. That gap is one reason a per-defendant table, however tidy, does not tell an individual worker what a check will look like.
From $202.7 million to a worker’s share
Gross is not net. Class counsel’s announcement lays out requests that remain subject to court approval: attorneys’ fees of up to 33.33 percent of the total, which it prints as $67,559,910 plus interest, litigation costs of up to $6 million, and notice and administration costs of up to $4 million. Class representative awards can reach $30,000 each.
If every one of those three main requests were granted in full, they would total $77,559,910, and about $125.1 million of the $202.7 million would remain for distribution to workers. That is an illustration of the announcement’s own caps, not a prediction, and awards are decided at the final approval hearing set for Oct. 2, 2026 in Denver.
What remains is divided pro rata by time worked and earnings in the class period, and no per-worker estimate has been published. The settlement site says distribution has not begun.
Where the money is paid from, and who has to file
Workers who received a notice showing a compensation amount need do nothing to be included, the announcement says, though they may update information by Feb. 4, 2027. Workers with no notice must submit a Participation Form by that same date. Cohen Milstein reports the settlements were preliminarily approved as of Oct. 16, 2025, so the route is open now while final approval is pending, and Feb. 4, 2027 is a future date.
A payment tracker for a share nobody has calculated yet
The hard part of a settlement like this is not the form. It is the wait. The amount depends on the worker’s own earnings history, the split between the two pools depends on which plant and which years apply, and the fee awards will not be settled until the court rules. A worker who is included automatically may also find that an incomplete earnings record on the notice holds up payment until documentation is sent in.
That leaves several dates and a mailing address to keep straight over a stretch that the settlement site describes only as after approval and any appeals. Someone who moves, changes phone numbers or loses the notice in the meantime can drop out of contact with the administrator.
Filing a Participation Form or updating information with the settlement administrator, A.B. Data, is free and needs no paid help, and the administrator can be reached at 1-877-411-4775 or through BeefPorkWages.com, the site listed in the announcement as the official route. The controlling record for the deadline and the hearing date is that class counsel announcement, dated March 19, 2026.
Following more than one settlement at a time
Meatpacking workers are one of many groups with a class action open at any moment. MoneyPilot is a paid subscription service that lists open class-action settlements for members and shows which ones may match them, then files claim forms and tracks deadlines and payout status for the members who sign up.
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AI tools helped assemble this article, and its figures were checked against the sources linked in the text.
