Two years ago, Washington state was the first state ever to impose farmworker overtime pay legislation that disregarded the seasonal nature of farm work. 

This year, SB 5476 is trying to remedy that decision by providing employers a 12-week harvest window in which overtime pay will not begin until employees have worked 50 hours in a given week. 

Agricultural employers and employees worked with a 55-hour workweek in 2022 and the results were harmful to both employers and employees. Some farmworkers reported decreased hours resulting in less overall pay as their employers adjusted wages to account for the new rules. Employers have reported employees working up to 55 hours and then not coming in to work for the remainder of the workweek, meaning less take-home pay for workers.

 Some lawmakers can’t acknowledge that a 40-hour workweek on a farm is not feasible year-round. In testimony on ESSB 5172, agricultural employers pleaded for understanding and intuitive thought about the work done in orchards, on farms, and in barns throughout the state. Those pleas fell on deaf ears.

Now is the chance for legislators to listen to the needs of the agricultural community. 

A 12-week harvest flexibility window will not give total relief to our year-round producers – those who supply local restaurants, small grocery stores, and food banks – but it will provide a marginal respite from paying time-and-a-half as the overtime pay threshold lowers in our state.

For the 2023 growing season growers are required to pay time-and-a-half for any hours worked beyond 48 in a workweek; that threshold lowers to 40 hours in 2024. This forced white collar schedule does not consider the need to harvest crops when they are ready or care for livestock year-round.

Harvest seasons are especially busy for the farm community. Virtually all other responsibilities are set aside until harvest is complete. In the cases of our major commodities – hops, apples, sweet cherries, and others – harvest is a time-sensitive season. Fruits left on the tree or vine after an 8-hour shift may be ruined by the following day. Similarly, fresh vegetables grow at an extraordinary rate during peak season. Zucchini, for example, will grow one-quarter of an inch every hour in the heat of summer. So, produce left to wait in the heat of the afternoon is likely to outgrow the size perimeters of the buyer before harvesting continues.

As the agricultural community faces a permanent restriction in workweeks, food shortages will become more pronounced as growers turn to crops that require less hand-tending or attention to growth rates.

The other alternative for our state, one ostensibly deeply concerned about its overall carbon footprint, is to turn to imported produce. The carbon footprint of produce grown far afield, is by virtue of shipping alone, going to be significantly higher. For example, strawberries are now widely available year-round. A strawberry traveling 2,800 miles has a carbon footprint of .29 Kg, if all the berries are eaten. That same amount of strawberries that travels 48 miles has a carbon footprint of .14 Kg, half the emissions.

Pushing food production out of Washington state is not just bad for the environment, it is catastrophic for the 164,000 people employed in agriculture. It takes jobs from the people in our communities who need them the most. The USDA reports that approximately half of all farmworkers in the U.S. are undocumented, thus living in fear of deportation. For some, re-entry into their home country followed by a legal application for work through either the H-2A farmworker visa program or through legal immigration channels may not be an option. Forcing a 40-hour work schedule on undocumented workers heightens their risk while, potentially, decreasing their pay from their current employer.

Harvest flexibility, as outlined in HB 5476, gives employers and employees their best opportunities to continue to support each other. It gives farmworkers the chance to earn back some of their lost income and it gives employers the opportunity to harvest their crops more effectively – keeping their farms operational and farmworkers employed.