Ag Laws Need Changes Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. When it comes to challenges in recent years, farmers know that feeling all too well, and Washington lawmakers have done little to help ease the tensions.
Washington Policy Center’s Ag Director, Pam Lewison says our ag overtime law is putting many people out of work …
LEWISON … “Washington state farm workers command some of the highest wages in the country. And when you ask their employer to pay time-and-a-half after 40 hours a week, they can’t afford it.”
And this very big problem, Lewison says was created in Olympia …
LEWISON … “It is making a problem where one didn’t exist until they were legislated to begin paying overtime.”
Other states that have passed ag overtime laws, Lewison says have reasonable workarounds …
LEWISON … “Whether it is farms can apply for a tax rebate to recoup some of their expenses so that they can afford to pay overtime, or overtime doesn’t kick in until you hit 50-60 hours. Or there is some sort of seasonal exemption that allows you to declare, you know, this is my harvest window, and so during this time frame of 12 or 16 weeks, or whatever it might be, this is when we don’t pay overtime and the rest of the time we are constrained to this white-collar schedule.”
Again, that is Pam Lewison, Ag Director at the Washington Policy Center.
