New Colorado overtime law for farm and ranch workers gets mixed reaction
Across the country states are implementing overtime pay for farm workers. However, farmers and ranchers are hoping more can be done to maintain better pay and sustainability.
When it comes to farm and ranch workers, overtime laws and pay vary from state to state.
In some states like California, agricultural workers are covered by state overtime laws. Some states have limitations, like Minnesota. Some are not covered at all by state overtime laws like Kansas.
Places, like Texas, do not have a state law regarding overtime pay for any workers.
Colorado became the seventh state in the country to require overtime for farm and ranch field work.
“We believe that everyone deserves safe and dignified working conditions,” said Dan Waldvogle with the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. “Well compensated employees are in agriculture’s best interest. However, we do believe farms and ranches have to be economically viable in order to provide those competitive wages.”
Waldvogle said while the union is in support of better and safer pay for farm and ranch workers, this could mean a more difficult time for farmers and ranchers.
“One thing I can say about some of these rules is that it does create some higher standards to make sure that bad actors are rooted out and workers are protected,” Waldvogle said. “But food prices have gone up fourteen percent or so. The problem is none of that is going to the farmer. The challenge is farmers and ranchers don’t have the ability to influence the prices they receive for the products they sell. If there are additional costs that they have to incur because of this bill and overtime rules, they’re going to have to absorb those. What I worry is that we’re going to see a trend towards consolidation and less access to locally produced food because a lot of these farmers and ranchers are going to have to choose between selling out or perhaps shifting to other commodities that are less labor intensive.”
According to the new law in Colorado, farmers and ranchers will pay field employees overtime starting in late 2022 after 60 hours worked in a week.
In 2024, that hourly threshold drops to 54 hours for most operations.
According to a statement from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, these measures give Colorado the nation’s strongest protections against hazardously long hours.
“When I look at my farm, I am expecting this new overtime law will increase our labor cost by ten or fifteen percent,” said Gwen Cameron, a peach farmer in southern Colorado.
Cameron said smaller farmers and ranchers like her may need to cut down the size of their operations and make it harder to recruit workers.
“Honestly, I am not sure how I’m going to account for those workers and still pay the bills keeping up with those new rules,” Cameron said. “What I wish happened was that we came up with a solution to raise all boats that pay workers better wages and help farmers receive better prices for their products so they can afford to pay those higher wages.”
James Henderson, the vice president of the Colorado Farm Bureau and a rancher himself., hopes some type of federal reform could happen to allow flexibility for H2A visa workers.
“A lot of H2A workers want to come and get as many hours they possibly can and return to their home country and support their family through that,” Henderson said. “We are very concerned that those workers are going to go states like Florida, Georgia or Alabama instead of coming to Colorado because of the limited hours. Things that could be done to balance this out is a federal fix in H2A reform and allowing those workers to have a little bit more fleability. That would keep Colorado competitive.”
