You can send comments to regulations@labor.ny.gov by email.
In September, a three-person wage board voted to send its suggestion to state Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon for her to look over. Over the next ten years, that recommendation was to lower the overtime limit for farmworkers from 60 to 40 hours.
Reardon agreed to that plan, and the process of making rules started. The public has 60 days to say what they think about the process.
Starting in 2024, the number of hours a farm worker must work before getting overtime will drop from 60 to 56. The limit will drop by four hours every two years, from 52 in 2026 to 48 in 2028 to 44 in 2030 to 40 in 2032.
Farmers and state lawmakers don’t like the plan because they think it will hurt farming in New York. They point to a Cornell report that surveyed dairy farmers and found that almost two-thirds of farms would stop making milk, move out of state, or leave the industry. Half of the people who grow vegetables said they would either cut back or stop.
The lower overtime threshold is supported by groups that speak up for farmworkers. One of their main points is that it would make farmworkers the same as workers in other industries who get overtime after 40 hours of work.
