In the end, the actual result is yet to be seen, as there hasn’t yet been data collected on how the initial shifts to the overtime law has affected farmworkers’ financially.The last few years have been a largely unprecedented period for farmworkers, who have worked through a series of disasters — a pandemic, wildfires, heat waves, and more — while rising inflation has driven up the cost of living.
While Washington is still in the early phases of implementation, California can offer insights into how overtime laws potentially shape the lives of farmworkers. The overtime law has been in effect in California since 2019. Susana Ortiz, a farmworker within the Central Valley for 17 years, says the overtime just began benefiting her financially last year, as the law’s threshold moved to 40 hours.
Yet farmworkers at the hearing were divided about whether adding the 12-week-a-year exemption would create a sizable loophole in the law. Some spoke to how the law could inadvertently result in them making less money as growers cap their hours. Multiple growers echoed this point, including Mark Hambelton, chair of the Washington Tree Fruit Association.
“It’s very frustrating that we have to keep revisiting these old fights instead of moving forward,” said Edgar Franks, the political director of the union Familias Unidas por la Justicia, which represents Indigenous Mexican farmworkers in Washington state. “We’re going up against a huge agricultural industry that has lobbyists, access to politicians, [and] workers have none of that luxury.
CivilEats Why are the business owners called growers and not the farmworkers?