An ongoing march to pay farm workers more continues to unfold in the state of New York as agriculture labor regulations have drastically changed over the last few years. Beginning in January 2020, The New York State’s Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act established that all farm workers must be paid one-and-a-half times the regular rates of pay for any hours worked over 60 hours in a calendar week.
Recently the New York State Department of Labor stated they have found that a Lewis County New York dairy farm failed to pay its workers the overtime wages they were owed for nearly two years. This resulted in a settlement including two dairy farm workers receiving nearly $150,000 in back wages.
New York is nationally ranked for milk production with nearly 3,000 dairy farms that produce more than 15 billion pounds of milk annually.
Tonya Van Slyke, the executive director for the Northeast Dairy Producers Association (NEDPA), says she doesn’t personally know the accused Lewis County dairy farmers and cannot speak on their behalf, but shares that it is difficult for dairies to keep up with the fast-paced and ongoing labor regulations being rolled out in New York.
“Minimum wage is going up and the overtime threshold is ratcheting down at the same time. This causes our labor costs to increase exponentially,” she shares. “In addition, with some ag labor becoming unionized in New York, it is hard for dairies to keep up with all the labor regulations changes that are unfolding.”
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