By Rick Zimmerman
The Grow NY Farm’s Coalition, representing the state’s agriculture community, launched a campaign to protect farms, jobs, and local food production by upholding the 60-hour overtime threshold created as a result of the 2019 Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act. The coalition, comprised of agriculture businesses and organizations including NEAFA, is working to maintain the current 60-hour overtime threshold to safeguard the interests of farmworkers and farmers. A New York State Wage Board is poised to reconvene next month to assess the threshold, which is at risk of being reduced even further to 40 hours if the board deems necessary. The proposed reduction would economically devastate many New York farms, with immediate consequences felt most by farmworkers themselves.
Prior to the adoption of the 60-hour overtime threshold, the industry standard for farmworkers was 80 hours during peak season — a well-established concept amongst farmworkers and farmers whose industry is reliant on labor-intensive harvesting. Although influenced by downstate activists unfamiliar with the agriculture industry, the threshold of 60 hours was achieved as a compromise, despite objections from farmworkers who want as many hours as possible. Farmworkers, many of whom come from other countries to work seasonally, benefited from longer weekly hours, sufficient to make a projected income before returning home. Farmers are at risk of not being able to afford a workforce if the overtime threshold moves to 40 hours per week.
Farm Credit East recently released a report on the impact of a 40-hour overtime threshold on New York agriculture, and stated that labor costs will increase by 17% over current levels and the increase will grow by 42% when factoring in the minimum wage increase, wage benefits and required tax payments. If this threshold is lowered to 40 hours, farms will have to reassess their entire business model and operations. This report can be found here.
“New York is home to a vibrant agriculture industry and our local communities are in place to support farmers with necessary services and programs,” said Danielle Penny Stroop, President, Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance. “A reduced overtime threshold will dramatically alter the face of agriculture in New York, including our rural communities which are very much dependent on a vibrant production sector. It would be an irrevocable loss to our communities if New York farms were forced to produce only non-labor intensive crops like corn and soybeans. We cannot let this happen.”
“It is time once again to raise our voices and stand united, farmers, farmworkers, and industry partners as an agriculture community to fight for our future viability,” said John Dickinson, Chair of the Northeast Dairy Producers Association. “Reducing the overtime threshold from 60 hours to 40 hours will further burden a struggling community unable to absorb the costs and will ultimately fall on the shoulders of farmworkers, hindering their ability to make a living and support their families. Furthermore, this will have a direct negative impact on rural economies and farms are the backbone of many communities. The Wage Board and New York State cannot lower the overtime threshold. It will be a landmark decision many in our community will not be able to survive.”
“The truth of the matter is farms will change their operations to be less labor intensive, which means fewer locally produced products, fruits, and vegetables for New Yorkers, worse yet, some farms will cease to exist,” said Eric Ooms, New York Farm Bureau Vice-President and dairy farmer. “Across the country, our workforce availability is dwindling, and New York farms are already struggling to compete. Any more restrictions and farms that have been in families for generations could disappear. While proponents of a 40-hour work week claim to fight for the workers, farmworkers will be the ones to lose out as their hours will surely be cut or jobs could be eliminated. Keeping the overtime threshold at 60 hours is the only option for New York’s diverse agricultural community and its employees.”
Bill Peck of Welcome Stock Farm, Saratoga County, NY testified before the NYS Assembly Agriculture Committee November 16th and stated that “This threatened increase is not sustainable and if enacted through a wage board recommendation, the face of New York’s dairy industry will be forever altered. Lowering the threshold will in fact hurt workers’ take-home pay. Farms will be forced to limit overtime just like many other industries are already doing because the economics of farm businesses in NY cannot support overtime pay. In some cases, jobs will be lost because of farms going out of business, downsizing their dairy herd, or changing the commodity they produce and replace human labor with technology.”
The Wage Board is expected to meet in December to consider the question: should overtime for farmworkers be lowered below 60 hours per week.