SALEM, Ore. (KGW) — A new law took effect in Oregon this month, one that begins a five-year process of mandating that farmworkers receive overtime pay after working a certain amount of hours per week. In this first year of the law, the threshold is 55 hours per week — anything worked above that must be paid time and a half.
That threshold is set to gradually drop over the next few years until it’s in alignment with other full-time work. In 2025, it goes down to 48 hours. By 2027, it will be 40 hours.
This applies to all of the 85,000 or more farm workers across Oregon, who have not been entitled to overtime pay for more than 80 years.
Oregon’s law also extends tax credits to relieve some of the burden on farmers. Most farmers will be eligible for one of three tiers of tax credits, depending on how many people they employ. Tax credits will incrementally decline between 2023 and 2028 and then will end or be re-evaluated by lawmakers.
For proponents of the law — including former state representative and now Congresswoman Andrea Salinas, who was chief sponsor of the Oregon House bill — it’s an unequivocal good. The law ensures that farmworkers, many of them migrant laborers, receive pay comparable to other Oregonians.
“I don’t blame anybody today for setting that system up but I do take responsibility for changing a system that was rooted in racism,” Salinas said of her support for the bill.
Opponents of the bill, like the Oregon Farm Bureau, argued that it would wreak...
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