Will Well-Intended Farm Bill Be Detrimental to Growers?

[brooklynite]

Governing

For years, hundreds of thousands of farmworkers toiling in California's agricultural heartland weren't entitled to overtime pay unless they worked more than 10 hours a day. But that has changed due to a 2016 state law that's been gradually implemented over four years. As of Jan. 1, California law requires that employers with 26 or more employees pay overtime wages to farmworkers after eight hours a day or 40 hours a week.

That means many farmworkers like Cárdenas will now be compensated time-and-a-half for working more than eight hours. It's a change advocates say is long overdue to provide the agricultural labor force with the same protections afforded to other hourly workers. But opponents argue that the law — though well-intentioned — strains farmers who already operate on thin margins and confront other financial challenges. Employers also say the new rules will disadvantage workers, as they'll likely reduce hours in an attempt to cut increasing labor costs.

...snip...

Ryan Jacobsen, a farmer and Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO, said the law doesn't address the needs of the farming industry, arguing that agriculture requires a unique set of rules because it is subject to changing weather and seasons. And unlike other businesses, the labor-intensive industry requires more flexibility on scheduling and working, especially during peak harvest times, he said.

"Most of these jobs in the industry are still seasonal in nature and there are times of the year where there's more work than there is in other times of the year," he said. "In the California ag industry, there was always — up until the passage of this bill — an understanding that these employees would be able to make up these hours during these shorter windows because there's not as much availability of farm agricultural work (in other times of the year)."

Governing is a Trade Publication for Government officials and employees.

[MineralMan]

1. Both farm owners and farm workers suffer from

the nature of how farms generate revenues and how that revenue is distributed. Sadly, the revenue generated from crops ends up in the hands of two or three levels of middlemen, for the most part. Owners, particularly on small farms, pay workers from what is left after the middlemen get their share, and then have whatever is left as profit.

The middlemen always get paid. The workers get paid. The farm owner, however, often ends up with an empty wallet.

Sadly, about the only people the owner can complain about are the workers who harvest the crops and who do the work on the farm. So, that's who they complain about. The middlemen always get paid first.

None of that means that farm workers do not deserve overtime. Not at all.

[Klaralven]

2. Grapes, for example, need to be picked when they have the right sugar content

So long hour some days and weeks. Other times, there are slack days and weeks.

[MineralMan]

4. Yes. That is true for most crops. When they are ready to be harvested,

there is a limited time window for that to happen. For crops like grapes, or citrus fruits, picking and harvesting is done by crews of workers who work for a labor contractor. The farm owner, large or small, pays the contractor, not the individual workers. So, it is not the farm owner who deals with pay issues directly. The contractor does that, and so it is the that contractor who is responsible for pay.

For the farm owner, there is only an accounting of labor costs when the contractor delivers the bill. Beyond that, the farm owner has no control over the cost of the harvest.

The crop goes to a company that processes and packs the crop for sale to a wholesaler, who handles the sale to retail sellers. At every stage, the farm owner is billed for the work of the middlemen involved. Once again, the farm owner normally has no say in controlling those costs. The farm owner gets paid later with whatever is left. Often, what is left is not much, unfortunately.

My late parents owned a small citrus and avocado farm. In the last 10 years, their net proceeds from farming approached zero, once all of those costs were deducted by those middlemen. Their farm ceased to be profitable, but the work had to go on or the farm would wither and die. So, they had a negative cash flow from farming. It was an untenable situation. Once every three or four years, the farm paid its own way and produced a small profit.

It was not always that way.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. It's almost as if our model of food production needs to change.

[Klaralven]

5. The farmer's share of the retail price is typically a small percentage. Single digits for bread.

USDA's Farm-to-Retail Price Spreads:

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/price-spreads-from-farm-to-consumer/interactive-chart-price-spreads-and-food-markets/

And we wonder why rural people don't like city people. All the money goes to the city people.