Agricultural overtime law cuts farmworker income and pushes up food prices

The recent shift in how farm work is viewed has created laws in seven states for agricultural overtime pay at time-and-a-half. The move toward overtime pay in agriculture has hurt the income outlook for many farmworkers. Two years ago, Washington state became the first state in the U.S. to force agricultural work into an urban white-collar schedule – mandating a phased in approach to overtime thresholds that required time-and-a-half at 55 hours in 2022, overtime pay at 48 hours in 2023, and 40 hours in 2024. Read the entire policy note here.