ALBANY — The overtime threshold for farm workers in New York has officially been lowered, from 60 hours to 40 hours per week.
Over the course of the next nine years, the total hours a farm laborer can work before becoming eligible for overtime pay will drop by four hours every other year, until reaching 40 hours per week in 2032. On the first day of 2024, the overtime threshold will be set at 56 hours per week.
The overtime cap reduction has been in process for years, with support from labor activists, farm workers and New York’s Democrats. Farm owners, industry groups and Republican officials have been strongly opposed.
A board of industry experts and regulators was called in 2020 to hear testimony and recommend if the overtime threshold should be lowered, and by how much. After two years of work, the wage board recommended that the threshold be dropped to 40 hours per week. On Wednesday, Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon officially accepted the recommendation.
A spokesperson for the New York State Farm Bureau said they were not surprised by the move, which has been in the works for years. A year ago, the commissioner announced that the threshold would be lowered, and Wednesday’s move is just a formalization of that decision.
“Farms will be forced to make difficult decisions on what they grow, the available hours they can provide to their employees and their ability to compete in the marketplace,” the spokesman said. “All this was highlighted in the testimony and data that the wage board report and the commissioner simply ignored.”
It was met with pushback from Sen. Mark C. Walczyk, R-Watertown, who in a statement blasted the state Department of Labor’s decision. He previously represented the 116th Assembly District.
“This move is an absolute slap in the face to the hard working farm owners in upstate New York and the 49th Senate District,” he said. “This initiative puts large agricultural operations on an uneven playing field and may serve as a benchmark for the end for small family farms.”
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