A fight is brewing in the Oregon Legislature over a proposal to give farmworkers overtime pay after 40 hours a week.
Democratic supporters say the change is long overdue and that extending overtime pay to a group of essential workers who toil long hours, do difficult work and earn low wages is a matter of equity. But Republican opponents say the bill would slice into farming revenue at a time of lower commodity prices and devastating climate changes and force owners to cut worker hours or sell their operations.
State Representative Vikki Breese-Iverson (R-Prineville), the House minority leader, suggested during a presentation with the media before the session started that Republicans were so strongly opposed to the bill that they might walk out.
House Bill 4002, sponsored by Democratic Representatives Paul Holvey and Andrea Salinas, follows Oregon’s overtime law which requires employers to pay many hourly workers time and a half for more than 40 hours worked a week. The change would be phased in with overtime pay required for more than 55 hours a week in 2023 and 2024, 48 hours a week in 2025 and 2026, and then 40 hours in 2027.
The bill includes tax credits through 2029, allowing employers to deduct 50 percent of overtime pay in 2023 and 2024, 35 percent in 2025 and 2026 and 20 percent in 2027 and 2028.
The proposal received its first legislative hearing earlier this week in an online meeting of the House Business and Labor Committee. More than 50 people have filed...
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