Legislation Introduced to End Exclusion of Farmworkers from Overtime Pay

Washington, D.C. – Last week, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) introduced the Fairness for Farm Workers Act, legislation to update the nation’s labor laws to ensure farm workers receive fair wages and compensation. The bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide overtime and additional minimum wage protections for farm workers. The bill was previously introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.-03).

“The pandemic underscored that farmworkers are essential workers and vital to our national security and food supply. Yet for more than eight decades, they have been excluded from our most basic federal protections, like overtime pay,” said Farmworker Justice CEO Ron Estrada. “It is long past time to end our nation’s discrimination against farmworkers and to extend to farmworkers the rights and dignity that most other American workers enjoy. We applaud Senator Padilla and Representative Grijalva for their leadership in re-introducing the Fairness for Farmworkers Act, which would finally remedy this historical injustice.”

For more information on farmworker overtime rights at the state level, visit Farmworker Justice’s Interactive Map of Farmworker Rights.

The FJ fact sheet on the bill is available on our resources page here.