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WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYEES

WH1386 REV 07/16

MINIMUM WAGE The Fair Labor Standards Act requires the payment of the minimum wage listed above if you 

perform covered work for an employer who used more than 500 man-days of farm labor in any 

calendar quarter of the preceding year. A man-day means any day when an employee (except for 

a member of the employer’s immediate family) does agricultural work for at least one hour.

Note: Under specific exemptions in the law, employers do not have to pay the minimum wage to 

the following:

• Members of the employer’s immediate family;

• Local hand-harvest workers who are paid on a piece-rate basis and who worked fewer 

than 13 weeks in agriculture during the preceding calendar year;

• Migrant hand-harvest workers 16 and younger who are employed on the same farm as 

their parents and who receive the same piece rates as employees older than 16 working on 

the same farm;

• Workers mainly engaged in the range production of livestock.

CHILD LABOR At age 16, you may work at any time in any farm job, including those declared hazardous by the 

Secretary of Labor. At age 14, you may work in nonhazardous farm jobs outside school hours. 

Minors 12 and 13 years old may work outside school hours with written parental consent or 

on farms where a parent of the minor is employed, and those under 12 may work with parental 

consent outside school hours on farms not subject to the minimum wage. Although the FLSA 

authorizes the Secretary of Labor to issue waivers that would, under specified conditions, permit 

the employment of local minors 10 and 11 years of age to work outside school hours in the hand 

harvesting of crops, the Department of Labor has been enjoined from issuing such waivers since 

1980.

ENFORCEMENT The Department has authority to recover back wages and an equal amount in liquidated 

damages in instances of minimum wage, overtime, and other violations. The Department may 

litigate and/or recommend criminal prosecution. Employers may be assessed civil money 

penalties for each willful or repeated violation of the minimum wage or overtime pay provisions 

of the law. Civil money penalties may also be assessed for violations of the FLSA’s child labor 

provisions. Heightened civil money penalties may be assessed for each child labor violation 

that results in the death or serious injury of any minor employee, and such assessments may 

be doubled when the violations are determined to be willful or repeated. The law also prohibits 

retaliating against or discharging workers who file a complaint or participate in any proceeding 

under the FLSA.

ADDITIONAL

INFORMATION

• Some state laws provide greater employee protections; employers must comply with both.

• Certain full-time students, student learners, apprentices, and workers with disabilities may be 

paid less than the minimum wage under special certificates issued by the Department of the 

Labor.

• The law requires employers to display this poster where employees can readily see it.

EMPLOYEE RIGHTS

UNDER THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT

The law requires employers to display this poster where employees can readily see it.