How to Fill Out and Submit the Poultry Wages Settlement Participation Form

The Poultry Wages Settlement participation form is the document you file to claim a share of the $398,050,000 fund resolving allegations that major chicken processors conspired to suppress hourly worker pay. You can submit it online at www.PoultryWages.com or by mail to the settlement administrator, and the extended deadline is June 30, 2026.¹ Payments begin May 15, 2026, so filing early improves your chance of being paid in the first round rather than a later one.

Check That You Qualify Before You File

You are a class member if you worked as a non-supervisory, hourly employee at a poultry processing complex, plant, hatchery, or feed mill between January 1, 2000, and July 20, 2021.¹ Production workers, maintenance staff, and other hourly roles at facilities run by the settling defendants are covered. Salaried managers and upper-level supervisors are not.

The underlying case is Jien v. Perdue Farms, No. 1:19-cv-02521 (D. Md.), which alleges the defendants shared confidential compensation data to hold wages down across the industry in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.² If you worked at any covered facility during the class period, your employment history determines which defendant settlements apply. You do not need to sort that out yourself.

One boundary worth naming: the opt-out deadline passed on May 27, 2025. You can no longer exclude yourself and sue on your own. Your choice now is to file a participation form or forfeit your share.¹

Gather Your Documents First

Missing paperwork triggers a deficiency notice and slows your claim. Have these ready before you open the form:

A government-issued photo ID (such as a driver’s license) or an employee ID from one of the defendant companies. If you have neither, a copy of at least one paycheck or pay stub from a covered facility works.³
Employment details for each covered job: company name, workplace city and state, facility type (plant, hatchery, or feed mill), start and end dates, hourly pay rate (or annual salary), average weekly hours, and job title.
Your Social Security Number or ITIN. The form asks for this under penalty of perjury for identity verification and tax reporting.
A completed IRS Form W-9 if you are a U.S. person, or a W-8BEN, W-8BEN-E, or other W-8 series form if you are not. Without a valid tax form, the fund may apply backup withholding to your payment.⁴

If you no longer have pay stubs or old employee IDs, the participation form notes that some payroll service providers used by these companies still have accessible pay history. Contact your former employer’s payroll processor before assuming the records are gone.

Filling Out Each Section

The form has three sections. Work through them in order; the form will not process correctly with any section left incomplete.

Personal Information

Enter your full legal name, street address, city, state, ZIP code, mobile phone number, and email address. If you received a notice by email or postcard, it included a Unique ID. Enter that number where the form asks for it, because it links your submission to records the administrator already has and speeds up verification. If you never received a notice, leave the Unique ID blank; the administrator will match your information against defendant payroll records.³

Employment History

This section drives your payment. Fill out the chart with one row for each job at a covered poultry company. For each entry, provide the company name, the specific workplace location, whether you worked in a plant, hatchery, or feed mill, the dates you worked there, your hourly rate or annual salary, your average weekly hours, and your job title.⁴ If you worked at more than one facility, or held different positions at the same location in different periods, add a separate row for each.

Accuracy matters because every year of covered employment and every dollar of earnings factor into your payment. Use pay stubs or W-2s to pin down your hourly rate rather than guessing. If you truly cannot locate records, provide your best estimate. Approximate figures are better than blank fields, since the administrator cross-references your entries against employer records anyway.

Documentation and Tax Certification

Upload your photo ID or paycheck copy, then complete the W-9 or W-8. The form warns that failing to provide adequate documentation when asked can result in denial of your claim.³ Sign under penalty of perjury. Everything you entered needs to be truthful and as accurate as you can make it.

How to Submit

You have two options:

Online through the portal at www.PoultryWages.com. Online filing generates an immediate confirmation, so you know your claim was received.
By mail to Poultry Wages Settlement, c/o A.B. Data, Ltd., P.O. Box 173016, Milwaukee, WI 53217. If you mail it, use certified mail or a service with tracking so you have proof of the mailing date.³

The extended participation deadline is June 30, 2026.¹ The first round of payments begins May 15, 2026, so filing well ahead of the deadline gives you a better chance of being included in that initial distribution rather than a later round.

What Happens After You File

Once the administrator receives your form, your information is checked against master payroll records provided by the defendant companies. You should get an email or letter confirming your submission is being processed.

If something is missing or does not match, whether your dates fail to line up with the employer’s records or your documentation is unclear, you will receive a deficiency notice explaining what the administrator needs. The final deadline to respond to deficiency notices is April 9, 2026.⁵ Miss that deadline and your claim can be denied even if you filed the original form on time. Treat a deficiency notice like a second deadline and respond as quickly as you can.

For questions at any stage, contact the settlement administrator at 1-877-311-3745 or through the official website.6

Watch Out for Scams

Whenever a large settlement fund draws public attention, scammers follow. The court-authorized notice for this case states plainly: “A federal court has authorized this. It is not a solicitation from a lawyer.”⁶ A few ground rules protect you:

Use only www.PoultryWages.com. Do not enter your Social Security number or personal information on any other site claiming to process poultry settlement claims.
Call only 1-877-311-3745. If someone contacts you from a different number asking for payment or personal details to “process your claim,” that is not the administrator.
Never pay to file. Submitting a participation form is free. Anyone asking for money upfront is running a scam.
Verify emails before clicking. When in doubt, go directly to www.PoultryWages.com rather than following a link from a message.

1
Poultry Wages Settlement Official Website. Poultry Wages Settlement
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1 – Trusts, Etc., in Restraint of Trade Illegal; Penalty
3
Poultry Wages Settlement. Poultry Wages Settlement Participation Form
4
Poultry Wages Settlement. Poultry Wages Settlement Participation Form
5
Poultry Wages Settlement Official Website. Poultry Wages Settlementa>
6
Poultry Wages Settlement. Notice