Farm workers milk dairy cows in the milking parlor at the Welcome Stock Farms Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Schuylerville, N.Y. New York state is now looking at lowering the farm worker overtime threshold from 60 hours a week. Some workers and their advocates say the change would bring long-delayed justice to agricultural workers in New York. But the prospect is alarming farmers.
Farm workers milk dairy cows in the milking parlor at the Welcome Stock Farms Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Schuylerville, N.Y. Some workers and their advocates say the change would bring long-delayed justice to agricultural workers in New York. But the prospect is alarming farmers.
Farm workers milk dairy cows in the milking parlor at the Welcome Stock Farms Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Schuylerville, N.Y. Some workers and their advocates say the change would bring long-delayed justice to agricultural workers in New York. But the prospect is alarming farmers.
Farm workers pose for a portrait while milking dairy cows in the milking parlor at the Welcome Stock Farms Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Schuylerville, N.Y. Some workers and their advocates say the change would bring long-delayed justice to agricultural workers in New York. But the prospect is alarming farmers.
Farm workers milk dairy cows in the milking parlor at the Welcome Stock Farms Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Schuylerville, N.Y. Some workers and their advocates say the change would bring long-delayed justice to agricultural workers in New York. But the prospect is alarming farmers.
Farm workers milk dairy cows in the milking parlor at the Welcome Stock Farms Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Schuylerville, N.Y. Some workers and their advocates say the change would bring long-delayed justice to agricultural workers in New York. But the prospect is alarming farmers.
Farm workers milk dairy cows in the milking parlor at the Welcome Stock Farms Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Schuylerville, N.Y. Some workers and their advocates say the change would bring long-delayed justice to agricultural workers in New York. But the prospect is alarming farmers.
Dairy farmer Bill Peck talks about new business costs and how its has effected New York farm workers that were granted collective bargaining rights, workers’ compensation, and unemployment benefits that could increase costs on already marginal operations at his Welcome Stock Farms Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Schuylerville, N.Y.
Dairy farmer Bill Peck talks about new business costs and how its has effected New York farm workers that were granted collective bargaining rights, workers’ compensation, and unemployment benefits that could increase costs on already marginal operations at his Welcome Stock Farms Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Schuylerville, N.Y.
Dairy Cows housed in barn at the Welcome Stock Farms Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Schuylerville, N.Y. Some workers and their advocates say the change would bring long-delayed justice to agricultural workers in New York. But the prospect is alarming farmers.
Dairy Cows housed in barn at the Welcome Stock Farms Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Schuylerville, N.Y. Some workers and their advocates say the change would bring long-delayed justice to agricultural workers in New York. But the prospect is alarming farmers.
Business office at the Welcome Stock Farms Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Schuylerville, N.Y. New York state is now looking at lowering the farm worker overtime threshold from 60 hours a week. Some workers and their advocates say the change would bring long-delayed justice to agricultural workers in New York. But the prospect is alarming farmers.
FILE- Farm workers harvest summer squash at C&M Farms in Valatie, N.Y., July 5, 2013. New York state is now looking at lowering the farm worker overtime threshold from 60 hours a week.
FILE – A farm worker pours apples to be used for cider into a bin at Bowman Orchards on Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in Rexford, N.Y. New York state is now looking at lowering the farm worker overtime threshold from 60 hours a week.
FILE – Workers in the Schoharie Valley harvest cauliflower on a rainy autumn morning at Shaul Farms on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014, in Fultonham, N.Y. New York state is now looking at lowering the farm worker overtime threshold from 60 hours a week.
SCHUYLERVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — The thousands of people paid to plant corn, pick apples and milk cows in New York often work long days, six days a week — and earn overtime only after 60 hours of labor.
New York took a big step Friday toward lowering that threshold when a state board voted to recommend that a 40-hour overtime rule for farm workers be phased in over the next 10 years.
If the recommendation is approved by the state labor commissioner, New York would join California and Washington state in phasing in an overtime threshold common in other industries.
The vote by the three-member wage board capped a series of public hearings this month that heated up debate over compensation for agricultural workers in New York, many from Mexico, Guatemala and other foreign countries.
“We need a better quality of life,” veteran dairy worker Lazaro Alvarez said this week. He is among those who say the change is long overdue for an estimated 55,000 agricultural workers in New York.
But the prospect is alarming farmers. They warn the extra costs would wipe out marginal farms, hobble others and actually reduce workers’ earnings if farmers cap hours to manage expenses.
“While the industry overall may survive, many individual farms will not,” Chris Laughton of Farm Credit East, a lender for the agriculture industry in the Northeast, testified this month.
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