Farmers alarmed as NY looks at expanded OT for their workers

SCHUYLERVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — The thousands of people paid to plant corn, pick apples and milk cows in New York often work long days, six days a week — and earn overtime only after 60 hours of labor.

The state is now looking at lowering that overtime threshold. New York could possibly join California and Washington state in phasing in a 40-hour overtime rule for farm hands, a threshold common in other industries.

“We need a better quality of life,” said veteran dairy worker Lazaro Alvarez. He is among those who say the change is long overdue for an estimated 55,000 agricultural workers in New York, many from Mexico, Guatemala and other countries outside the United States.

But the prospect is alarming farmers. They warn the extra costs would wipe out marginal farms, hobble others and actually reduce workers' earnings if farmers cap hours to manage expenses.

“While the industry overall may survive, many individual farms will not,” Chris Laughton of Farm Credit East, a lender for the agriculture industry in the Northeast, testified this month.

At Welcome Stock Farm near Saratoga Springs, Bill Peck said overtime after 40 hours for the farm’s 18 full-time employees would cost him up to an extra $12,000 a month. Dairy farmers like Peck say they cannot simply raise prices to reflect added expenses, since wholesale milk prices are regulated.

“We aren’t going to be able to invest in a new tractor. We aren’t going to be able to invest in adding another barn,” said Peck. “That money is going to go just into payroll, so which is good for them in the short term, but long term the business can’t survive.”

Crop farmers who grow vegetables and apples say they would be particularly hard hit when extra seasonal labor is needed. They say higher overtime costs will make them less...