Ending Discrimination Against Farmworkers: Gov. Brown Should Sign the California Overtime Pay Bill

California during the past forty years has gradually added farmworkers to employment-law protections from which they have been excluded by Congress and state legislatures. On August 27, the California legislature passed a bill that over several years would phase in time-and-a-half pay for working more than 8 hours a day and 40 hours in a week in agriculture. Under federal law, farmworkers and their employers are excluded from overtime pay; and under current California law, overtime need only be paid if farmworkers work more than 10 hours a day or 60 hours in a week. Governor Jerry Brown should sign the bill to provide farmworkers with this important benefit and to continue the process of reducing discrimination in employment laws against agricultural workers.

We congratulate the coalition that won this legislative battle after a defeat just weeks earlier. The United Farm Workers brought many farmworkers to the state capital, Sacramento, to demonstrate their support for equal treatment and overtime pay. A new compromise was achieved and was passed despite the strenuous opposition of agribusiness groups.

For decades it has been recognized that businesses which require more than forty hours of work in a week should pay a premium wage. Overtime pay offers extra compensation to workers but also acts as a deterrent against employers’ imposition of excessively long work days and weeks. Consistent, excessive hours can be physically damaging, especially to workers who make their careers in strenuous jobs. Excessive hours interfere with time needed to raise children, care for elderly parents, take classes, enjoy leisure time and get needed sleep. Farmworkers’ low pay means that they usually cannot afford to pay for extended daycare hours for their children or other services that are needed to address the effects of working excessive hours.

Overtime pay has been controversial and opposed by many businesses as too costly and as being globally anti-competitive for over one hundred years. Yet, most people in working class jobs have been covered by time-and-a-half pay since passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The exception for agriculture was never fair. It’s long past the time to grant overtime pay to agricultural workers.

Gov. Brown should sign the bill, and then Congress should apply overtime pay to agricultural work and end other discriminatory employment-law provisions. California is the most successful agricultural production state; about one-third of the nation’s farmworkers are employed there. Not only do farmworkers outside California deserve an end to discrimination in labor laws, but agricultural businesses in California should not have to compete with growers that save money on labor costs because the federal law and their state laws discriminate against farmworkers in employment laws.

We all want to feel good about the food we purchase and consume, and the continuing discrimination in employment laws against farmworkers – the people who produce our food – perpetuates a stain on our food system that should be eradicated. Overtime pay for farmworkers: it’s time.

 

California during the past forty years has gradually added farmworkers to employment-law protections from which they have been excluded by Congress and state legislatures. On August 27, the California legislature passed a bill that over several years would phase in time-and-a-half pay for working more than 8 hours a day and 40 hours in a week in agriculture. Under federal law, farmworkers and their employers are excluded from overtime pay; and under current California law, overtime need only be paid if farmworkers work more than 10 hours a day or 60 hours in a week. Governor Jerry Brown should sign the bill to provide farmworkers with this important benefit and to continue the process of reducing discrimination in employment laws against agricultural workers.

We congratulate the coalition that won this legislative battle after a defeat just weeks earlier. The United Farm Workers brought many farmworkers to the state capital, Sacramento, to demonstrate their support for equal treatment and overtime pay. A new compromise was achieved and was passed despite the strenuous opposition of agribusiness groups.

For decades it has been recognized that businesses which require more than forty hours of work in a week should pay a premium wage. Overtime pay offers extra compensation to workers but also acts as a deterrent against employers’ imposition of excessively long work days and weeks. Consistent, excessive hours can be physically damaging, especially to workers who make their careers in strenuous jobs. Excessive hours interfere with time needed to raise children, care for elderly parents, take classes, enjoy leisure time and get needed sleep. Farmworkers’ low pay means that they usually cannot afford to pay for extended daycare hours for their children or other services that are needed to address the effects of working excessive hours.

Overtime pay has been controversial and opposed by many businesses as too costly and as being globally anti-competitive for over one hundred years. Yet, most people in working class jobs have been covered by time-and-a-half pay since passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The exception for agriculture was never fair. It’s long past the time to grant overtime pay to agricultural workers.

Gov. Brown should sign the bill, and then Congress should apply overtime pay to agricultural work and end other discriminatory employment-law provisions. California is the most successful agricultural production state; about one-third of the nation’s farmworkers are employed there. Not only do farmworkers outside California deserve an end to discrimination in labor laws, but agricultural businesses in California should not have to compete with growers that save money on labor costs because the federal law and their state laws discriminate against farmworkers in employment laws.

We all want to feel good about the food we purchase and consume, and the continuing discrimination in employment laws against farmworkers – the people who produce our food – perpetuates a stain on our food system that should be eradicated. Overtime pay for farmworkers: it’s time.