NYFB Overtime Statement

New York State Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon accepted the Farm Laborers Wage Board Report today and its recommendation to lower the farmworker overtime threshold to 40 hours. The threshold will drop in four-hour increments beginning at 56-hours in 2024.

New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher issued the following statement today:

“This is a difficult day for all those who care about New York being able to feed itself. Commissioner Reardon’s decision to lower the farm labor overtime threshold will make it even tougher to farm in this state and will be a financial blow to the workers we all support.

Moving forward, farms will be forced to make difficult decisions on what they grow, the available hours they can provide to their employees, and their ability to compete in the marketplace. All of this was highlighted in the testimony and data that the wage board report and the commissioner simply ignored.”

The Grow NY Farms coalition released this statement today folllowing the decision:
“New York’s agriculture community is deeply disappointed in Commissioner Reardon’s ill-informed decision to lower the overtime threshold for our family farms. This decision threatens the security of our food supply, the retention of our skilled farmworkers, and the future of New York’s farms. If Governor Hochul has the ability to step in and stop this damaging decision, she must do so immediately.”