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Farm Employer Overtime Credit Advance Updates and Webinar on July 25th

The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets (AGM) recently communicated updates about the farm employer overtime tax credit and an upcoming webinar on July 25th at 2:00 PM. Please see the info below directly from AGM…

We are writing to provide updates regarding the Farm Employer Overtime Credit Advance certificate program that the Department of Agriculture and Markets (AGM) is administering, as well as to offer an updated fact sheet that may be helpful to your members who are interested in taking advantage of this opportunity.

Based on legislative changes that were made in May 2025, AGM has been working with the New York State Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) to meet new program requirements as well as to make additional enhancements to the online application process. These updates include:

  • Farm employers that used a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) for payroll services that included eligible overtime between January 1, 2024 – December 31, 2024 may apply to receive an overtime credit advance certificate from AGM.
  • Farm employers that used a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) for payroll services that included eligible overtime between January 1, 2025 – July 31, 2025 may apply to receive an overtime credit advance certificate from AGM.
  • Farm employers that used a PEO and wish to apply for a 2024 and/or 2025 credit certificate will be required to provide the following via the AGM online application system:
    • the name of the PEO business;
    • the first and last name of the primary contact person for the PEO;
    • a phone number and email address for the PEO primary contact; and
    • documentation that verifies the financial relationship between the farm and the PEO (e.g., service agreement, contract, etc.).
  • Farm employers, regardless of whether they used a PEO or not, will not be required to attach payroll documentation/records when applying for an advance certificate. (Note: Employers should continue to maintain all necessary payroll records and associated documentation should there be any questions from the Department of Taxation and Finance (DTF) or AGM.
  • Farms will need to provide the following information for each eligible employee: full name, social security number or taxpayer identification number, total eligible overtime hours worked, employee overtime hourly rate, and employee regular/base rate.
  • Please note that employee information can either be manually entered into the online application system or downloaded using an Excel template from within the online system. The Excel spreadsheet template must be completed offline and then uploaded into the system (must be .xls or .csv file format).
  • Farms can apply for an advance certificate from AGM beginning August 1, 2025. The deadline to apply is September 30, 2025.

We are strongly encouraging eligible farms interested in applying for the overtime advance certificate to take the following steps now:

Thank you,

The Farm Employer Overtime Credit Advance Team
Division of Agricultural Development
New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets

 

Impact of Overtime on California Farm Worker Hours and Earnings

California phased in farm worker overtime starting in 2019 for larger employers and starting in 2022 for smaller employers with 25 or fewer employees. Starting January 1, 2025, all California farm employers must pay overtime rates beginning at 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. Very little data existed in the past to understand how overtime would affect the actual hours worked and take home pay of farm employees. Now, with a few years of earnings under California overtime, data is starting to become available to answer this question.

The article below originally appeared in the University of California’s Rural Migration News, it is reposted here in it’s entirety.

Rural Migration News

July 2024, Volume 30, Number 3

California: Overtime

Does California’s AB 1066 law, which mandates overtime pay at 1.5 times the usual wage for farm workers after eight hours of work in a day or 40 hours in a week, increase or decrease the hours worked and earnings of farm workers? There were no studies of the likely effects of AB 1066 on worker hours and earnings before AB 1066 was implemented in 2019. Three types of workers who typically work long hours were expected to be most affected: dairy and other animal workers, equipment operators and irrigators.

The question was whether farmers would pay overtime to these workers or reduce their usual hours of work.

Most evidence suggests that farm employers reduced hours. The USDA Farm Labor Survey found that the average weekly hours of directly hired California workers fell relative to the average weekly hours of all US directly hired farm workers. In 2016, California’s directly hired farm workers averaged 2.7 more hours a week than all US farm workers. That fell to +1.9 more hours a week in 2019, +0.1 hours in 2021, and -1 hour in 2023, which means that directly hired California farm workers averaged an hour less per week in 2023 than all US farm workers.

The NAWS interviews 500 to 600 California crop workers a year. Workers reported fewer hours worked during the previous week in 2019 and 2020 than in 2018; overtime pay began in 2019, and 8/40 overtime was required for employers of 25 or more workers in 2022. A quarter of the crop workers interviewed in 2019-20 reported working 46 to 50 hours a week, another quarter 36 to 40 hours, and about an eighth each reported 41 to 45 and 51 to 55 hours.

An analysis using NAWS data concluded that SB 1066 led to fewer hours and lower weekly earnings, especially for workers who had been employed more than 50 hours a week before 2019. NAWS data suggest that employers tried to avoid paying overtime by limiting most workers to 40 hours a week, which meant lower weekly earnings for workers who had been employed for longer work weeks.

American Community Survey data based on interviews conducted with workers in their homes also found reduced hours of work for California farm workers. ACS Q40 asks how many weeks the respondent worked in the previous 12 months and Q41 asks how many hours per week the respondent usually worked when they were employed, so ACS data on average hours per week reflect recall responses.

ACS Q42 asks for the name and type of employer, allowing the ACS to impute the industry or NAICS code of the employer where the respondent worked the most hours and the respondent’s occupation and duties. Q43 asks for the respondent’s income over the past 12 months, including income from wages and salaries, investments and public assistance.

The ACS found that the usual weekly hours of California farm workers fell from 42.5 in 2018 to 40.5 in 2021 and to 39.6 in 2022, and the share of farm workers employed more than 40 hours a week shrank. However, nominal farm worker earnings rose in lockstep with minimum wage increases, and rose especially rapidly between 2021 and 2022.

The most comprehensive data on farm worker earnings are from the employment and earnings data reported by farm employers when paying UI taxes to EDD. The UI data do not include hours worked, but they provide a count of all hired workers on the payroll for the pay period that includes the 12th of the month and all earnings paid to all workers each quarter.

EDD can extract earnings data of all California workers who were employed during other payroll periods by farm employers and assign them to the NAICS commodity of the employer where the worker had his/her highest earnings. The result is a census of primary farm workers, or workers whose highest earnings were with a California farm employer (NAICS 11), and then distinguish between a crop employer, a strawberry employer, or a dairy employer.

EDD data find an average 724,500 primary farm workers between 2018 and 2021, with a drop of one percent between 2018 and 2021. The number of primary crop workers fell four percent during these years, the number of primary vegetable workers fell 10 percent, and the number of primary grape workers fell 30 percent. The number of primary animal workers fell two percent, while the number of primary crop support workers rose by two percent, including a five percent jump in primary FLC workers to 333,000, meaning that 333,000 or 46 percent of all primary farm workers had their highest earning job with a FLC.

The EDD data permit analysis of changes in average annual earnings by commodity or NAICS of the employer. Average annual earnings for primary crop workers rose between 2018 and 2020, and then fell sharply between 2020 and 2021, down 15 to 20 percent in most commodities. The drop in the average annual earnings of primary farm workers may reflect the demand for workers falling faster than supply during covid and employers reducing the hours of workers to avoid paying overtime wages.

The Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) and the Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP) held a march April 28, 2024 in Santa Maria to demand higher piece rate wages for picking strawberries, which are typically $2.50 per flat of eight one-pound clamshells. The two NGOs argued that piece rates must increase to allow farm workers to afford to live in Santa Barbara County.

Over 100 workers and their supporters demonstrated in May 2024 at a wine event in Healdsburg demanding at least $25 an hour or $250 a ton to harvest wine grapes.

LAST CALL! 2024 Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark closes April 30th

April 30th is the last day to share your data and participate in the 2024 Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark!

You need reliable information to make good decisions. Employee compensation is a critical part of attracting and retaining high-performing employees. Managers need accurate and detailed data to compare how they are doing relative to others in the industry. Cornell Ag Workforce Development will run the 2024 Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark until April 30th. All farm participants who enter valid, usable data about one or more of their farm’s employees will receive a report and be invited to participate in a follow-up webinar to discuss the findings.

The process is easy and only takes about 10 minutes per employee to enter:

  1. Select one or more employees who worked for you in 2023.
  2. Gather your data about the regular and overtime hours they worked and how much pay they earned in 2023. Most farms will have this readily available in payroll records.
  3. Gather your data about the non-wage benefits they received and how much the employer paid for them. Include items such as the employer-paid portion of insurances and retirement, value of any paid time off, estimated market value of any provided housing, and other items such as provided food or clothing.
  4. Enter the data you collected along with other simple, descriptive information about the employee’s position in the 2024 Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark.
  5. Repeat steps 1-4 to enter data about another employee.

Farms with more complex workforces should enter multiple employees. Choose a few representative frontline employees plus any middle managers or even more senior managers in the business. We will collect information from a large number of farms of all types in New York and other states, and we will be able to separate the data by farm type (dairy, fruit, vegetable, greenhouse, etc.) in order to provide more specific and customized reports.

There is no cost to participate and farms who provide at least one usable employee entry will receive a report of the results and an invitation to attend a webinar discussion of the findings. All information that you enter will be kept confidential. Only aggregate data, with no way to identify farms or individuals, will be published or shared.

Does Your Pay Measure Up? Enter your Compensation Benchmark data by April 30th

Time is running out to share your data and participate in the 2024 Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark! Time and money flying away from a farm worker.Employers need reliable information to make good decisions. Employee compensation is a critical part of attracting and retaining high-performing employees. Managers need accurate and detailed data to compare how they are doing relative to others in the industry. Cornell Ag Workforce Development will run the 2024 Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark until April 30th. All farm participants who enter valid, usable data about one or more of their farm’s employees will receive a report and be invited to participate in a follow-up webinar to discuss the findings.The process is easy and only takes about 10 minutes per employee to enter:

 

  1. Select one or more employees who worked for you in 2023.
  2. Gather your data about the regular and overtime hours they worked and how much pay they earned in 2023. Most farms will have this readily available in payroll records.
  3. Gather your data about the non-wage benefits they received and how much the employer paid for them. Include items such as the employer-paid portion of insurances and retirement, value of any paid time off, estimated market value of any provided housing, and other items such as provided food or clothing.
  4. Enter the data you collected along with other simple, descriptive information about the employee’s position in the 2024 Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark.
  5. Repeat steps 1-4 to enter data about another employee.

Farms with more complex workforces should enter multiple employees. Choose a few representative frontline employees plus any middle managers or even more senior managers in the business. We will collect information from a large number of farms of all types in New York and other states, and we will be able to separate the data by farm type (dairy, fruit, vegetable, greenhouse, etc.) in order to provide more specific and customized reports.

There is no cost to participate and farms who provide at least one usable employee entry will receive a report of the results and an invitation to attend a webinar discussion of the findings. All information that you enter will be kept confidential. Only aggregate data, with no way to identify farms or individuals, will be published or shared.

How does your pay compare? Join the 2024 Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark

A competitive compensation package is essential for retaining high-quality employees in your farm business. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find accurate and up-to-date information about employee compensation. Participating in the 2024 Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark will give you the information you need to compare your compensation to other farm businesses and make better compensation plans. The process is easy and only takes about 10 minutes per employee to enter:

  1. Select one or more employees who worked for you in 2023.
  2. Gather your data about the regular and overtime hours they worked and how much pay they earned in 2023. Most farms will have this readily available in payroll records.
  3. Gather your data about the non-wage benefits they received and how much the employer paid for them. Include items such as the employer-paid portion of insurances and retirement, value of any paid time off, estimated market value of any provided housing, and other items such as provided food or clothing.
  4. Enter the data you collected along with other simple, descriptive information about the employee’s position in the 2024 Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark.
  5. Repeat steps 1-4 to enter data about another employee.

Farms with more complex workforces should enter multiple employees. Choose a few representative frontline employees plus any middle managers or even more senior managers in the business. We will collect information from a large number of farms of all types in New York and other states, and we will be able to separate the data by farm type (dairy, fruit, vegetable, greenhouse, etc.) in order to provide more specific and customized reports.

There is no cost to participate and farms who provide at least one usable employee entry will receive a report of the results and an invitation to attend a webinar discussion of the findings. All information that you enter will be kept confidential. Only aggregate data, with no way to identify farms or individuals, will be published or shared.

Please participate in the 2024 Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark today!

By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post How does your pay compare? appeared in The Ag Workforce Journal.

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Farm Compensation Trends and Benchmark Opportunity

USDA conducts a farm labor wage survey twice per year to capture a high-level snapshot of how farm wages are changing. The survey does not go into detail about farm or job types, not does it provide information about compensation benefits other than wages. Combined wages for field and livestock farm employees in New York and New England states in October 2023 was $18.41; wages for the same group in 2022 was $16.92, in 2021 it was $15.85. This represents a 16% increase in hourly farm employee wages in just two years.

Cornell’s PRO-DAIRY program leads a long-running study of the performance of dairy farms in New York state. The project collects data annually from many farms that participate year after year, this gives researchers insight into certain trends over time on the same farms. Jason Karszes recently updated hired labor trends in his publication titled: “Hired labor on New York State dairy farms: Cost, efficiency, and change from 2016 – 2022.” Not surprisingly, labor costs for dairy farms continued to climb, with annual percentage increases of 5.1% in 2021 and 8.7% in 2022. Increasing labor costs were partially offset by increasing labor efficiency, with the amount of milk sold per worker, and the number of cows per worker also rising each year.

Farm managers are severely challenged to keep labor costs under control as outside forces such as rising minimum wage, increasing overtime requirements, and tight labor markets tend to drive up costs. But it’s not just about cost control, managers must organize, train, and lead a highly effective and engaged workforce to be sure that production results increase to continue offsetting labor costs. Employee compensation is a critical part of attracting and retaining high-performing employees. Managers need accurate and detailed data to compare how they are doing relative to others in the industry.

Cornell Ag Workforce Development will run the 2024 Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark in March and April 2024. All farm participants who enter valid, usable data about one or more of their farm’s employees will receive a report and an invitation to participate in a follow up webinar to discuss the findings.

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By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post Farm Compensation Trends and Benchmark Opportunity appeared in The Ag Workforce Journal.

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H-2A Wage Rates & SOC Codes Explained

The 2024 Becker Forum was hosted by New York State Vegetable Growers Association on Monday, January 22, 2024. At the event, recent changes to the H-2A program were discussed in detail, including from U.S. Department of Labor’s senior H-2A administrator, Mr. Brian Pasternak. Mr. Pasternak shared incredibly important information with the audience and I want to revisit a few key points here. Much of this message is good news, especially the fact that most H-2A jobs will still fit into the traditional AEWR pay rates. However, employers must carefully describe jobs by using the task language from O*NET as detailed later in this message. Note that everything presented here is for education purposes only and is not legal opinion.

U.S. DOL issued a “Final Rule” effective November 2022 that changed how program wage rates apply to some H-2A jobs. Essentially, it makes certain H-2A jobs such as supervisors, mechanics, some heavy truck drivers, and other jobs subject to wage rates that reflect the broader economy, not just farm jobs. These wages come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupation Employment Wage Survey (OEWS). Generally, these OEWS wages are higher than the farm AEWR wages, so employers are keen to keep most H-2A jobs under the farm AEWR. The following slides are from Mr. Pasternak’s presentation. The column on the left shows the “Big 6” farm jobs with standard occupation classification (SOC codes) that remain under the farm AEWR rates.

The slide below provides a link to the USDOL website that provides the current AEWR and OEWS wages. In the right column it explains that one H-2A job requested by an employer, depending on the job tasks required, could be subject to more than one SOC code. H-2A employers must be very careful about the tasks they list in the job description for H-2A jobs, because these tasks will be used the state and federal agencies to determine which SOC codes apply, and thus which wage rates.

Following are a few examples of the different H-2A wage rates that could be applied in New York. Note that if a higher wage rate is applied, then that rate must be paid for every hour that an employee works, not just when they are performing the higher skill task.

Certainly, the OEWS wages are higher than the FLS-based AEWRs, for this reason, it is important for employers to carefully and accurately describe their positions in their H-2A applications. Fortunately, the vast majority of farm jobs should still fit under the Big 6 SOC codes. The slide below shows typical tasks in the left column that are all under the Big 6, in the right column it shows tasks that would likely move the job into the higher-paid OEWS category.

It is important for employers to become familiar with SOC codes and the descriptions found in O*NET Online, because this is where the job descriptions and specific task lists for certain jobs can be found. Employers can directly use the words from the O*NET descriptions to describe the jobs in their H-2A applications. Following are direct links to O*NET descriptions of the Big 6 agricultural jobs:

The slide below provides directions to O*NET Online in the left column. In the right column it focuses on drivers and encourages employers to provide details about any driving duties listed.

Mr. Pasternak shared a clear example in the slide below that most driving duties in H-2A jobs should fit into the Big 6. The red text below describes most driving duties and would fit into SOC codes 45-2092 and 45-2091. Now, if a worker was assigned to drive a regular bus route for other H-2A workers, or required to have CDL and deliver farm product over-the-road to distant deliver points, then these would likely be driving duties that fall outside of the Big 6 codes.

In summary, the Becker Forum communicated a lot of critical information this year. Much of it was good news clarifying that most H-2A work will fit into the Big 6 codes. Work closely with your H-2A advisors to accurately describe jobs in your applications. If you believe a job should fit into the Big 6, and all the tasks can be found in the Big 6 descriptions in O*NET, then be sure to insist on this position if the NYS Department of Labor makes a different determination or denies your application, you can also appeal to USDOL.

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By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post H-2A Wage Rates & SOC Codes Explained appeared in The Ag Workforce Journal.

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2024 Minimum Wage Increase and Overtime Tax Credit

It’s 2024, and with the new year comes another increase in the minimum wage in New York state. Be sure that all of your employees are earning at least $16 per hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester; and $15 in the rest of upstate New York. Details can be found on NYS Department of Labor’s minimum wage site. Also note that the state has scheduled minimum wage increases of $0.50 each year on January 1, 2025 and 2026. After that, increases will be determined by the state government each year based on data from inflation indexes.

Of course, January 1, 2024 also brought the first scheduled decline in the farm employee overtime threshold. Overtime for farm employees now begins at 56 hours each week. Eligible farm employers will be able to apply for the Farm Employer Overtime Tax Credit to help offset the cost of the overtime premium. Both the state Departments of Agriculture and Markets, and Tax and Finance have set up webpages to help explain this new tax credit and how to apply for it.

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By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post 2024 Minimum Wage Increase and Overtime Tax Credit appeared in The Ag Workforce Journal.

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New York Employers Must Post Pay Rates in Job Ads

As of September 17, 2023, New York employers with 4 or more employees must post pay information and a brief job description in any advertising about a job, promotion, or transfer opportunity for a job to be performed in the state. The law also applies to job performed out of New York that reports back to a supervisor in New York. In most cases, employers must post a good faith range of pay that describes the upper and lower bounds that an employer is willing to pay for a given job. For example, if a farm is advertising for an equipment operator with some experience, it might advertise a range of $15 to $22 per hour; assuming that an operator with some experience will be above minimum wage but the farm is not willing to pay more that $22 per hour for this position. Employers can also state a simple pay rate such as $16 per hour or $55,000 per year in salary.  Proposed regulations (which are open for comment until November 13 by emailing regulations@labor.ny.gov) for this law indicate that the stated pay rates cannot include any value of benefits such as: tips, insurance, time off, retirement, meals, housing, etc.

A few points to be clear:

  • Pay ranges cannot be open-ended, such as: “the pay range is $17 and up.”
  • In an employer finds a highly-qualified applicant and needs to pay him or her at a rate higher than the advertised pay range, that is acceptable and still considered “in good faith” by the employer.
  • “Advertising” includes simple actions such as sending out an email soliciting for job candidates, or posting on social media. Any means of advertising is covered, including by third parties such as recruiters who are acting on behalf of the employer.
  • This law does not require employers to advertise for jobs, promotion, or transfer opportunities. It only requires pay information when the employer chooses to advertise for them.
  • The law also “prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who discuss their compensation with coworkers.”

For more information:

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By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post New York Employers Must Post Pay Rates in Job Ads appeared in The Ag Workforce Journal

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PBS Discussion of the Agricultural Workforce in NY

I was glad to participate in PBS station WCNY’s discussion of agriculture on Connect NY which aired on August 28, 2023. It was a good conversation and included Jeff Williams from NY Farm Bureau, Brett Bossard from Barbland Dairy, and Jessica Maxwell from the Worker’s Center of Central NY. Watch the video here. It was a good chance to talk about career opportunities in NY agriculture.

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