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The New York Department of Labor’s Farm Wage Board held three meetings in late December to determine if the overtime threshold for farm workers should be lowered. Their decision to wait at least a year was issued on New Year’s Eve.
New York’s Farm Workers Labor Law of 2019, which became effective January 1st, 2020, includes requirements to provide at least one day off per week; unemployment insurance coverage, paid family leave and the right to organize. The agriculture industry was also allowed to keep an exemption allowing 60 hours of work before overtime is paid. The new law required a wage board to determine if and when that overtime threshold could be lowered to 40 hours per week.