Title: Fairness for Farm Workers Act
Policy area: Labor and Employment

Summary:
Fairness for Farm Workers Act
This bill amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 with respect to agricultural workers.
The bill requires employers, beginning in 2019, to compensate agricultural workers for hours worked in excess of their regular hours (i.e., 55 hours in 2019, 50 hours in 2020, 45 hours in 2021, and 40 hours in 2022) at not less than one and one-half times the employee's regular rate. For employers with 25 or fewer employees, the overtime pay requirements begin in 2022. These overtime pay requirements do not apply, as in current law, to employees who are the parent, spouse, child, or other member of the employer's immediate family.
The bill also repeals the exemption from overtime pay requirements for employers in various agriculture-related industries, including certain small farms, irrigation projects, sugar processing, and cotton ginning and compressing.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3131 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3131

  To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide increased 
labor law protections for agricultural workers, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 25, 2018

 Ms. Harris (for herself, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Booker, Mr. Merkley, Mr. 
Blumenthal, Ms. Hirono, Ms. Warren, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Udall, and Ms. 
 Cortez Masto) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide increased 
labor law protections for agricultural workers, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Fairness for Farm Workers Act''.

SEC. 2. REDRESSING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST AGRICULTURAL WORKERS UNDER 
              THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT OF 1938.

    (a) Ending Discrimination With Respect to Overtime Hours 
Requirements.--Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 
U.S.C. 207) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a), by adding at the end the following:
    ``(3)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (C), beginning on 
January 1, 2019, no employer shall employ any employee employed in 
agriculture (who in any workweek is engaged in commerce or in the 
production of goods for commerce, or is employed in an enterprise 
engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce) for a 
workweek that is longer than the hours specified under subparagraph 
(B), unless such employee receives compensation for employment in 
excess of the hours specified in such subparagraph at a rate not less 
than one and one-half times the regular rate at which the employee is 
employed.
    ``(B) The hours specified in this subparagraph are, subject to 
subparagraph (C), as follows:
            ``(i) Beginning on January 1, 2019, fifty-five hours in any 
        workweek.
            ``(ii) Beginning on January 1, 2020, fifty hours in any 
        workweek.
            ``(iii) Beginning on January 1, 2021, forty-five hours in 
        any workweek.
            ``(iv) Beginning on January 1, 2022, forty hours in any 
        workweek.
    ``(C) With respect to any employer that employs 25 or fewer 
employees--
            ``(i) the requirement under subparagraph (A) shall begin on 
        January 1, 2022; and
            ``(ii) the hours specified under subparagraph (B) shall 
        apply as follows:
                    ``(I) The number of hours specified under 
                subparagraph (B)(i) shall begin on January 1, 2022.
                    ``(II) The number of hours specified under 
                subparagraph (B)(ii) shall begin on January 1, 2023.
                    ``(III) The number of hours specified under 
                subparagraph (B)(iii) shall begin on January 1, 2024.
                    ``(IV) The number of hours specified under 
                subparagraph (B)(iv) shall begin on January 1, 2025.''; 
                and
            (2) by repealing subsection (m).
    (b) Removing Certain Exemptions for Agricultural Work.--Section 13 
of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 213) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(6), by striking ``(A)'' and all that 
        follows through the semicolon and inserting ``if such employee 
        is the parent, spouse, child, or other member of the employer's 
        immediate family;'';
            (2) in subsection (b), by repealing paragraphs (12) through 
        (16); and
            (3) by striking subsections (h) through (j).
    (c) Effective Dates.--The amendments made by--
            (1) subsections (a)(2), (b)(1), (b)(3), and (d) shall take 
        effect--
                    (A) with respect to an employer that employs more 
                than 25 employees, on January 1, 2022; and
                    (B) with respect to an employer that employs 25 or 
                fewer employees, on January 1, 2025; and
            (2) subsection (b)(2) shall take effect--
                    (A) with respect to an employer that employs more 
                than 25 employees, on January 1, 2019; and
                    (B) with respect to an employer that employs 25 or 
                fewer employees, on January 1, 2022.
    (d) Conforming Amendment.--Section 4(a)(2) of the Migrant and 
Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (29 U.S.C. 1803(a)(2)) is 
amended by striking ``for whom the man-days exemption'' and all that 
follows through the period and inserting ``who did not, during any 
calendar quarter during the preceding calendar year, use more than 500 
man-days of agricultural labor (within the meaning of the exemption 
under section 13(a)(6)(A) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 
U.S.C. 213(a)(6)(A)), as in effect on the day before the date of 
enactment of the Fairness for Farm Workers Act).''.
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