Farm Overtime Wage Threshold

Floor Speech

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Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight a looming catastrophe for New York farmers, farmworkers, and consumers across New York State and the country.

On September 6, the New York State Farm Laborers Wage Board voted to advance a proposal to lower the State's overtime wage threshold for farm laborers from 60 to 40 hours per week, despite overwhelming opposition to the recommendation.

During the public comment period, farmers, farmworkers, and consumers all turned out in droves to oppose the recommendation. Farmers, who are struggling with inflation already, are now very worried about keeping up with yet another price hike. Farmworkers are gravely concerned about the possible lost hours on the job, cutting their wages. Consumers should fear even higher increases to food costs, which have already increased 11.4 percent over the last year, the biggest increase since 1979, with prices continuing to go up.

Their fears are real. Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences projected that the overtime rule's implementation could force two-thirds of dairy farmers to make significant changes to their operations, including, and dramatically bad, leaving the industry or investing in other States.

New York State already leads the Nation in the highest out-migration of people and jobs. This would be a disaster for our agricultural community.

Cornell University Ag Sciences also found that half of New York's fruit and vegetable farmers likely would have to reduce operations or leave the industry altogether. The second largest apple-producing county in the entire Nation is Wayne County, located in upstate New York.

Despite all this, the board still voted to advance the recommendation anyway. We are incredibly disappointed that the board ignored such compelling input from important stakeholders, worsening the already difficult headwinds for New York's agriculture industry. The board ultimately decided to undermine the very industry and workers they are supposed to be serving.

This week, I joined upstate farmers for a roundtable discussion hosted by Dale Hemminger and his son, Clay, at Hemdale Farms in Seneca Castle, New York. The feedback from the farmers was unanimous: Lowering the overtime threshold will devastate New York's agricultural industry and have a critically difficult impact on the future of family farms in New York and could leave New York as one of the few States in the country with such an onerous and unreasonable restriction on family farms.

Family farms, large and small, are the lifeblood of New York's economy. Everyone thinks it is New York City. It is actually agriculture.

Now, the recommendation is with the State labor commissioner, Roberta Reardon. I have and continue to urge her to reject this change and maintain the current 60-hour threshold. New York family farms and consumers simply cannot bear any further price increases.

I have also joined my other New York colleagues, Representatives Elise Stefanik and Chris Jacobs, in introducing legislation in Congress known as the Protect Local Farms Act to stop this misguided policy from taking effect.

If there are no farms, there will be no nutritious food to feed our State, our Nation, and, yes, the world, as we face a potential food shortage worldwide.

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