Fairness for Farm Workers Act Reintroduced in Congress, Senate

WASHINGTON, DC — Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-3) have reintroduced the ‘Fairness for Farm Workers Act’ in the nation’s legislature. The bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to grant overtime protections to farm workers who work more than 40 hours a week and would eliminate most of the remaining exemptions that deny farm workers a minimum wage.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 100 farm workers suffer injury each day and face the risk of missing work, yet farm workers average salary remains at or near the federal poverty line with most not getting paid any overtime pay at all.

“Farm workers work long hours in one of the most hazardous industries in America to ensure that all of us have access to quality food,” said Rep. Grijalva in a prepared release. “It’s unacceptable that so many live in poverty, and it’s time for farm workers to receive the wages they deserve. By amending the law, we are remedying decades of economic inequality rooted in racism and ensuring that the Fair Labor Standards Act truly lives up to its name for all American workers. Those who undertake the back-breaking labor to feed our constituents should be able to adequately provide for their own families.”

Senator Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) is reintroducing the companion legislation in the U.S. Senate.

“It is absolutely unconscionable that many farmworkers—people who often work over 12 hours a day in the hot sun—do not receive overtime pay for the hard work they do to put food on the tables of American families,” said Senator Harris. “This legislation is a major step towards economic justice for our farmworkers, and I’m proud to reintroduce it and continue this fight for basic fairness.”

The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act established federal standards for minimum wage and overtime pay, but the law excluded millions of domestic and agriculture workers who were overwhelmingly people of color. Farm workers gained some minimum wage protections in 1966, but exclusions on overtime persist to this day. The Fairness for Farm Workers Act would gradually implement overtime pay over the course of four years and bring greater equity to the American agricultural industry.

The reintroduced legislation has gained the support of more than 100 organizations nationally, including the National Council of Churches and fifteen other faith-based groups.

Congressional bill HR1080 has 18 co-sponsors and been referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor. The companion Senate bill has 16 co-sponsors and awaits numbering and assignment.

Oklahoma’s legislators are yet to register as co-sponsors for either bill.