New overtime rules about to hit state’s small farmers
California farmers employing 25 or fewer workers are about to get their first experience with overtime pay if they keep their crews in the field beyond a set number of hours per day or per week.
Starting Sunday, a 2016 law phasing in time-and-a-half pay for farmworkers who had never received it required that small ag employers pay overtime for work done after nine hours in a single workday or 50 hours in a workweek.
The new rules will narrow the difference between smaller farming companies and larger ones that, since Jan. 1 of last year, have been forced to pay overtime to ag laborers putting in more than eight hours per day or 40 hours per week.
Lauded by farmworker advocates as ending some inequities that have kept field workers near the poverty line, the requirements have been criticized by growers — and even some individual ag laborers — as upending conventions that have kept California farming competitive while allowing workers to put in longer hours that can lead to bigger paychecks.
A spokesman for the United Farm Workers union acknowledged Friday that some longtime ag laborers have been unhappy
about seeing their hours cut since overtime rules started being phased in almost four years ago. That’s because some employers have opted to hire more workers as a way of avoiding overtime pay for their existing crews.
“At the same time, we’ve heard stories that this has been great for farmworkers,” spokesman Antonio De Loera-Brust said.
He said a Delano grape picker shared a story about getting paid a higher rate to put in longer hours than normal in order to finish up the harvest ahead of an oncoming storm.
He added that she ended up collecting a bigger paycheck as a result.
Farmers tend to see it differently. Many have complained of unintended consequences, not only for competitive reasons and higher costs, but also because what used to be six-day workweeks are often shortened to five.
Some have also said they simply hire more workers to get the job done before overtime kicks in. Kevin Andrew, senior vice president of Bakersfield-based farming company Illume Ag, said by email Friday the rules taking effect Sunday will lessen the advantage smaller growers have enjoyed over larger ones.
“The small guys are going to have some OT shock now that they have to toe that line like us bigger guys have had to all along,” he wrote.
At the same time, it’s getting harder for all California ag employers to compete against growers in other states that don’t have such rules, Andrew said, adding that it’s no wonder vegetable growers are leaving the Golden State.
“If we could grow grapes and almonds in another state,” he said, “there would be a huge exodus out of here.”
No later than Jan. 1, 2024, ag companies with fewer than 26 workers will be required to pay overtime to employees working more than 8½ hours per day or more than 45 hours per week. A year later, the thresholds lower to 8 and 40, respectively.
De Loera-Brust said the situation speaks to the need for farmworkers to have greater say in the conditions under which they work. Plus, the fact that workers are so anxious to work long hours shows they ought to be paid more for their labor, he said.
He speculated that smaller farmers may have a harder time than larger employers finding additional workers, which would lead to greater benefits to laborers. Exactly how it will play out remains to be seen.
“We’ll just have to wait and see how different employers will address it,” he said.
California farmers employing 25 or fewer workers are about to get their first experience with overtime pay if they keep their crews in the field beyond a set number of hours per day or per week.
Starting Sunday, a 2016 law phasing in time-and-a-half pay for farmworkers who had never received it will require that small ag employers pay overtime for work done after nine hours in a single workday or 50 hours in a workweek.