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Farmworker overtime bill may include employer tax credit
Dora Totoian
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Oregon legislators' latest proposal to
require agricultural employers pay
workers overtime would include a
phased rollout and provide farmers a tax
credit to offset the costs.
The changes stem from stakeholder
meetings after Democrats failed to pass
overtime legislation last year.
The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act
provides an exemption that allows agri-
cultural employers to not pay workers
time-and-a-half for hours worked past
40 per week. A handful of states, includ-
ing California and Washington, require
employers to pay some form of overtime
to farmworkers.
Scholars have described the exclu-
sion of farmworkers and domestic work-
ers from the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act as a “race-neutral” way to preserve
racist policies and practices.
Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Lake Oswego,
plans to introduce a bill in the February
short session that would phase in over-
time requirements for agricultural em-
ployers over five years. Starting in 2023,
growers would have to pay overtime for
hours worked over 55 per week; in 2025,
over 48 hours per week; and in 2027, the
standard 40 hours per week.
The proposal would also provide a tax
credit to offset a percentage of the addi-
tional costs of overtime for growers. It
would cover half of those costs during
the first two years of its implementation.
In 2025 and 2026, the credit would cover
35% of those costs, and in 2027, 20%.
The credit will have an overall annual
cap, and if eligibility exceeds the amount
available, all tax credits would be re-
duced proportionately. One legislative
staff estimate anticipates the cap will be
$20 million a year, though that figure
has not been reviewed by the legislative
fiscal or revenue offices.
The proposal mirrors Washington’s
recently passed law, which phases in
overtime for farmworkers over three
years. California has phased in farm-
worker overtime over four years, with
this year being the first agricultural
workers will be entitled to standard
overtime pay.
In Oregon, a legislative workgroup
with representatives from PCUN, Ore-
gon’s farmworker union, the Oregon
Farm Bureau, and other industry organi-
zations convened in November and De-
Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Lake Oswego, speaks at a PCUN rally to kick off a campaign for farmworker overtime, a bill they're
introducing again in the short legislative session, on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021 at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, Ore.
ABIGAIL DOLLINS / STATESMAN JOURNAL
cember to work on a proposal but ended
at an impasse, Salinas said during a
House committee meeting Tuesday.
Hers may not be the only proposal on
the issue this session.
Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, a Repub-
lican and farmer who represents part of
Linn County, claimed Salinas’s proposal
would force growers to reduce workers’
hours, mechanize, downsize or farm
outside of Oregon.
She said she does not believe the tax
credit would be enough to help growers
weather the changes.
She said she plans to introduce some-
thing similar to Colorado’s recent farm-
worker overtime law.
Colorado growers will pay workers
overtime starting at 60 hours per week
later this year, and then will gradually
move to paying overtime starting at 48
hours per week by 2025. However, for
weeks during a designated peak labor
period, growers won’t have to pay over-
time until workers reach 56 hours a
week.
Rep. Daniel Bonham, R - The Dalles,
said he is also considering introducing
legislation that would allow exceptions
for seasonality.
Separately, the push for overtime for
agricultural workers is also being fought
in Oregon courts.
Two farmworkers filed a lawsuit with
the Oregon Court of Appeals last year ar-
guing the state’s wage and hour regula-
tory agency was illegally excluding them
from overtime pay.
Dora Totoian covers agricultural
workers through Report for America, a
program that aims to support local jour-
nalism and democracy by reporting on
under-covered issues and communities.
You can reach her at dtotoian@states-
manjournal.com
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