Do gooders in Salem and Olympia thought they were helping farmworkers when they passed legislation to phase out the decades-old overtime exemption for agriculture.

That hasn’t been the case.

The Fair Labor Standards Act, passed by Congress in 1938, established a federal minimum wage and provided for overtime pay for work over 40 hours. The act also provided 19 job classifications, including farmworkers, that are exempt from the overtime rule. Most states adopted similar legislation.

Worker advocates argue that the exemption was the product of racism and pandering to the needs of special interests. It was a compelling argument for legislators. On its face, it’s difficult for most people to understand why all hourly workers shouldn’t be paid overtime for working more than 40 hours a week.

But, it turns out 

The economics of agriculture haven’t changed that much since the 1930s. Farmers have to take the commodity price offered, and can’t pass higher labor costs on to customers.

Farmers of every scale note that farm work is distinct from factory production. The nature of most farm work makes it difficult to schedule in eight-hour days and 40-hour work weeks.

Many of the high-value crops grown in Washington and Oregon also require a lot of labor, particularly during harvest.

Critics of the measures warned that eliminating the overtime exemption would lead to producers cutting hours, and thereby reducing the amount of food produced.

And that’s exactly what’s happened. Farmers are only using as much labor as they can afford, limiting production or choosing only to harvest the most valuable crops.

Farmworkers who have grown used to the paychecks they earn by working long hours during peak production times have found that while they are working less, the are also earning less now.

In Oregon, farmers in 2023 and 2024 had to pay employees time-and-a-half wages if they worked more than 55 hours per week, but that threshold drops to 48 hours in 2025 and 2026.

In 2027, farmworkers must be paid overtime wages if they work more than 40 weekly hours, just like other workers.

The Oregon Board of Agriculture has endorsed reforming the state’s farmworker overtime wage law, which the statute’s critics hope will bolster their case in the upcoming legislative session.

During its most recent quarterly meeting last month, the Board of Ag unanimously approved a resolution which “strongly recommends a collaborative approach to amending” that bill, citing the “unique demands of peak harvest seasons.”

The resolution says any change should ensure “equitable compensation to workers,” but notes that similar overtime laws in Washington and California “have impacted the available hours of work for agricultural workers and constrained production capacity.”

It’s anyone’s guess whether the resolution will have any impact on the legislature. But reform of the measure would benefit farmworkers as much, if not more, as it would Oregon farmers.