Senate Republicans call on The Farm Laborers Wage Board to Reject Reduction of the Overtime Threshold

This week my Senate Republican colleagues and I sent a letter to the New York State Farm Labor Wage Board calling on them not to lower the overtime threshold to 40 hours per week. Over 96% of farmers, most of whom are family operators, indicated that should this regulation be changed, they would be forced to cut their employees' hours. In the end, this would hurt the very farm workers it is meant to help by cutting their paychecks by 30%. On top of that, this will also lead to reduced production and therefore higher prices for food, at a time when inflation is already driving up costs for New Yorkers. I believe that the Majority legislators don’t realize that in farming, “you gotta make hay while the sun shines.” Our farmers and their employees are some of the most hard working people around, let's not punish them at the time they can least afford it.