OREGON
A8 — THE OBSERVER
THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022
Oregon House votes to end ag overtime exemption
Measure awaits a
vote in the Senate
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — After an
emotional three-hour
debate, the Oregon House
voted 37-23 on Tuesday,
March 1, to end the state’s
agricultural exemption from
higher overtime wages.
The measure is awaiting
a vote in the Senate.
The overtime exemption
would be phased out over
fi ve years under House Bill
4002, and tax credits would
cover some of the higher
wages paid by farmers, But
critics claimed those pro-
visions won’t prevent the
inevitable loss of family
farms.
“They could be the nail
in the coffi n for farmers
who can’t absorb any more
increased costs,” said Rep.
David Brock-Smith, R-Port
Orford.
Many growers operate
on razor-thin margins and
would likely go out of busi-
ness while waiting for the
promised money from tax
credits, since they can’t
aff ord higher overtime pay-
ments, he said.
Rep. Raquel Moore-
Green, R-Salem, said
House Bill 4002 also isn’t
likely to help farmworkers,
since their employers
will likely seek to reduce
weekly hours, switch crops
or simply exit the industry.
“They could reduce their
operation size or cease
farming altogether and sell
out,” she said.
Supporters of HB 4002
cast the legislation as a
matter of constitutional
fairness and noted that if
an ongoing lawsuit against
the agricultural overtime
exemption is successful,
farmers won’t get assis-
tance to ease the economic
blow.
“I believe it’s time to
live up to the promise of
equal protection of the
law,” said Rep. Paul Holvey,
D-Eugene. “We owe basic
protections to farmworkers
and we owe it to farmers
not to make a major change
to their bottom line without
a safety net.”
Before approving HB
4002, the House voted
32-27 against remanding
the bill back to a joint
committee to consider an
amendment favored by
Republican lawmakers.
“There is still time to
fi nd a more workable solu-
tion. An Oregon solution,”
said Rep. Shelly Boshart-
Davis, R-Albany.
Under that amendment,
farmworkers would receive
overtime relief payments
from the state government
after they’d worked more
than 40 hours per week.
Meanwhile, farmers
would pay workers time-
and-a-half overtime wages
after a weekly threshold
of 48 hours during most of
Andrea Johnson/Contributed Photo, File
Agricultural workers harvest grapes at Bethel Heights Vineyard outside Salem in this undated photo. The Oregon House voted 37-23 on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, to end the state’s
agricultural exemption from higher overtime wages. The Senate will decide the measure’s fate.
the year and after 55 hours
during a 15-week “peak
labor period.”
“It is more generous
to farmworkers than any
other policy,” said Rep.
Daniel Bonham, R-The
Dalles. “They won’t have
their hours cut nearly as
much and will still earn
overtime wages after 40
hours.”
Rep. Holvey said he
opposed the amendment
because the state over-
time payments wouldn’t
include contributions to
social security insurance,
unemployment insurance
or worker’s compensation
insurance.
Farmworkers would
also have to wait up to two
months to receive the relief
payments from the state
government, he said.
The amendment was
already thoroughly dis-
cussed and rejected by the
Joint Committee on Farm
Worker Overtime, Holvey
said. “Sending the bill
back to committee would
not end up with a diff erent
outcome.”
Under the version of HB
4002 passed by the House,
the weekly threshold for
farmworker overtime
would begin at 55 hours
next year and incremen-
tally drop to 40 hours in
2027.
Most farms will be
divided into three tax
credit tiers based on their
number of employees:
Growers employing
fewer than 25 workers
would qualify for tax
credits of 90% of their
added overtime payments
next year, which would
decrease to 60% in 2028,
after which they’d expire.
During that time, the
tax credit rate would
shift from 75% to 50%
for growers with 25 to 50
employees, and from 60%
to 15% for farmers with
more than 50 workers.
Dairies would be
treated diff erently due to
their round-the-clock need
for animal care. Those
with fewer than 25 workers
would be eligible for a per-
manent tax credit rate of
100% of overtime pay-
ments, while those with
more employees would
qualify for a rate that
incrementally shifts from
75% in 2023 to 50% in
2028, its fi nal year.
Rep. Andrea Valder-
rama, D-Portland, said
that lawmakers heard from
thousands of farmers and
workers while deliberating
the bill, but said she was
most moved by the testi-
mony of employees.
Farmworkers testi-
fi ed about enduring chem-
icals, dust and injuries
while not having enough
money to cover their rent,
education and health care
needs, she said. “Why is
it the people who do the
most sacred work are the
most oppressed, the most
exploited?”
Rep. Andrea Salinas,
D-Lake Oswego, said
the agricultural exemp-
tion was created more
than 80 years ago at the
national level to appease
Southern lawmakers who
wanted to maintain segre-
gated conditions for Black
farmworkers.
“It was not about eco-
nomics back then, it was
about race,” she said.
Rep. Paul Evans,
D-Monmouth, said HB
4002 was not the bill he’d
hoped for but it will be
possible for lawmakers
to tweak it as it’s imple-
mented in future years.
“This bill is just the
beginning of the conversa-
tion,” Evans said.
As lawmakers, it’s their
obligation to recognize the
equality of human labor
and not to tolerate injus-
tice, he said. “We are sup-
posed to confront it, not
sweep it under the rug.”
The most valuable and respected
source of local news, advertising and
information for our communities.
www.eomediagroup.com
March
26-27
Saturday 9:00 am–5:00 pm
Sunday
9:00 am–3:00 pm
DESCHUTES COUNT Y
FAIR & EXPO CENTER
REDMOND
•
OREGON
PRESENTED BY
5 Buck Breakfast
SAT. MORNING 8–10
While supplies last
Sponsored by McDonalds
All proceeds to benefit Perfect Balance
POLITICS
Lawmakers vote to spend
billions as session nears end
By CHRIS LEHMAN
The Oregonian
SALEM — Oregon law-
makers are well on their
way to spending billions of
dollars in taxpayer money
as the 2022 legislative ses-
sion nears its end.
Over the course of about
an hour on Monday, Feb.
28, a key subcommittee of
senators and House mem-
bers approved a half dozen
bills that would send money
to nearly every corner
of the state. The Ways
and Means Committee
approved them all by the
evening of Feb. 28.
The bill would also send
money to a lengthy list
of infrastructure projects
in rural areas, including
$500,000 to restore an his-
toric forest ranger station in
Wallowa, and $20 million
for upgrades to fairgrounds
in 14 counties in Eastern
and Central Oregon.
Many of those appropri-
ations were the result of an
eff ort by Senate President
Peter Courtney, D-Salem,
and House Speaker Dan
Rayfi eld, D-Corvallis,
to spread money to rural
Oregon. The eff ort was
spearheaded by three
Republicans and one
Democrat.
Rayfi eld was careful
not to paint it as a way
of currying favor among
Republicans.
“This is about making
meaningful change in com-
munities across the state,”
he told reporters last week.
The list won approval
from one infl uential
Republican.
“This was, in my 22
years, probably the greatest
eff ort to dispense our
hard-earned tax dollars
throughout the entire state
of Oregon,” said Rep. Greg
Smith, R-Heppner.
Not every member of
the Legislature’s minority
party was impressed.
“I had to get up at 3:30
in the morning to try to
wade through this bill,”
said Sen. Fred Girod,
R-Lyons. “There are a lot
of good things in this bill,
don’t get me wrong. But the
overall size of the bill, I just
can’t possibly vote for it.”
It could take several
hours to read the bill aloud
in each chamber, if Repub-
licans don’t agree to waive
the constitutional require-
ment that bills be read out
loud in their entirety prior
to a vote.
Lawmakers have until
the end of the day on
March 7 to complete the
2022 session, which began
Feb. 1.
KIDS’ ZONE
PROJECTS AND FUN ACTIVITIES
ALL THINGS AGRICULTURE
Clint Johnson Working
Dog Demonstrations
SAT. 11–NOON • SUN. 10–11
Early Day Gas Engine
and Tractor Display
with Demonstrations