As of January 1st of 2022, California farms with 26 or more employees are obligated to pay 1.5x regular rate for any hours worked past 8 hour per day and more than 40 per week. This also included to raise their minimum wages to $15 per hour. This new change, although with good intentions behind it, has made it extremely difficult on the farm owners to decide whether to cut back on hours to avoid paying overtime and risk losing crops or allow their employees to stay on but will go will exceed their already tight labor budget. Even the smaller farms with less than 25 employees are finding it difficult to keep up with their daily production without going into overtime after 9.5 hour days and 55 hour weeks.
In one hand, the increased minimum wage for farm workers closes the pay gap between them and every other workforce which in most cases have less physically demanding tasks. On the other hand, farm owners are unable to allow their workers any added hours now leaving workers with less take home money in the end. This and other issues have been expressed by several workers that the pay increase has given them and extra $8 per day but in exchange have lost a full day´s pay due to overtime revisions.
Several farm workers at different points in the Central Valley were asked how these new rules have affected them. A Bakersfield farmworker name Enrique Moreno, 51, said, “They need the help, but they don’t want to pay overtime”.
47-year-old worker Hector Vargas mentions that it’s getting harder to pay the bills working only 40 hours per week. Vargas also mentions that even with his increased wage, he is finding it difficult to pay for necessities for his family since most goods have also increased in cost.
Secretary-treasurer of the United Farm Workers labor union, Armando Elenes is fighting for a decent hourly wage for all workers. He states that these new changes can allow more family quality time and avoid extreme were and tear from exhausting hours. Elenes hopes that the new changes combined what the employers claim to be a shortage of workers, will lead to better pay for Ag labor.
Kevin Andrew, senior vice president of Bakersfield-based farming company Illume Ag says he still hasn’t gotten used to seeing his vineyards empty on a Saturday. Illume has tried to stick to their no overtime plan as much as possible. Their tractor drivers have gone from 10 hours per day to 8 but several of his other employees complain that their hours were being taken away when a late shift irrigation driver was brought on.
With February approaching, the vines need to be pruned before budding which might force the company to rely on longer work days and will have to pay overtime for labor. Andrew is a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform which would help stabilize the Ag labor market and bring on more outside help.
The director of employment policy at the California Farm Bureau, Bryan Little, reports that many workers have had no choice but to get second or third jobs to make up the income loss with the hour cuts. This in turn gives growers an incentive to automate their farm production which in years past might have not been an option.
Spokesman Daniel Larios with the UFW Foundation fought for this change to happen so that laborers can earn a higher wage without being classified as lower class workers. One can only wait and see how things will turn out.
