05-03-2025
Grove bill would credit farmers for overtime pay
State Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, has proposed a solution to the challenges farmers face adjusting to a state overtime law that has raised their costs while effectively reducing their workers' earnings.
Her Senate Bill 628 would create a payroll tax credit to cover the difference between farmworkers' regular hourly wages and the overtime rate they receive since 2016's Assembly Bill 1066 phased in overtime provisions that have long been common in most other industries.
The bill Grove introduced last month was co-sponsored by the California Association of Winegrape Growers and the California Farm Bureau, both of which said in a news release the legislation would benefit growers and farmworkers alike.
"If legislators genuinely want to increase take-home pay for farmworkers, growers are going to need support from Sacramento to make it possible," President Natalie Collins of the winegrape growers group said in last week's release.
Grove said the provisions of AB 1066 have been hard on laborers who need more hours of work as well as growers trying to get their product to market.
'S.B. 628 is a commonsense solution that ensures farmworkers have more opportunities to earn, while providing relief to our agricultural businesses who sustain the world's food chain supply,' Grove said in the release.
While farmworker advocates say the change was long overdue, farmers and some laborers have complained that AB 1066 has brought about a sharp reduction in hours worked in Kern County agriculture. Laborers who were accustomed to working six days per week often work only five now because farmers say they don't have the ability to pass on the added costs.
A 2023 study out of the University of California, Berkeley found farmworkers worked a combined 15,000 to 45,000 fewer hours in 2019 and 2020 while making between $6 million and $9 million less per week than if AB 1066 were not in place.
Farmworker advocates disputed the study's conclusions, saying other factors may be at play, such as employment of more laborers. They faulted the report for including no information on how workers felt about receiving equal treatment as workers in other industries, and said global warming may be the actual cause of any decline in work hours.
Last week's news release announcing SB 628's introduction noted two U.S. states have similar tax credits. It said Oregon offers a refundable personal or corporate income tax credit for employers based on how much overtime they pay ag workers through 2028. New York's credit extends to 2028.
The farm bureau called Grove's proposal an investment in food security, rural communities and long-term sustainability of farming in California.
It emphasized that, besides helping agricultural producers, SB 628 would give "a real and richly deserved boost in take-home pay for farm employees."
