Tag Archives: overtime

From Oregon Public Broadcasting For Patricia Mendoza, working overtime was just a way of life. During harvest season, she could put in 70 hours a week preparing the fields, planting seeds, and harvesting produce at Schreiber Farms in southeastern Washington. So she was happy when she learned that starting in 2022, she would be paid an overtime wage like workers ... Read More »

By Pam Lewison Director, Washington Policy Center 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 ... Read More »

From the Capital Press Washington farm groups are now opposing a Senate bill granting farmworkers time-and-a-half pay after 40 hours in a week, unless the House lifts the threshold to 50 hours for 12 weeks a year. Read the full story here. Read More »

From the Capital Press In some sense, it’s difficult to argue against the “fairness” of paying farmworkers overtime. Time has value, and in an ideal world every employee’s time would be held equally dear. In the real world, however, things aren’t that neat and other factors come into play. The Fair Labor Standards Act, passed by Congress in 1938, established ... Read More »

This week, Nicole Berg, a farmer from Benton County, a past president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers and vice president of the National Association of Wheat Growers, testified in support of SB 5172, a bill concerning the retroactivity of overtime claims in exceptional cases. More than 150 people were signed up to testify. Here is Berg’s testimony, which ... Read More »