New York Apple Growers Fume Over Overtime Rules
KINDERHOOK, N.Y.—Golden Harvest Farms has grown from a small apple-growing operation when Doug Grout’s grandfather opened it after World War II, to a multipronged business that includes a retail stand, cider press, distillery, tasting room and barbecue restaurant.
But Mr. Grout said he sees a cloudier future for the business due to new state regulations that will require him to increasingly pay more overtime to the farmworkers who pick his apples in the coming years, raising one of his primary costs.
“We were looking to buy another orchard, and that whole thing is tabled,” said Mr. Grout, 52 years old, who co-owns Golden Harvest with his father, as he drove between rows of Honeycrisp trees. “We’re stepping away. You’re going to see farms go out of business. This is very shortsighted.”
Golden Harvest Farms has expanded into a multipronged business over the years.
State Labor Commissioner
Roberta Reardon
signed an order last month that will gradually lower the threshold at which farmworkers must be paid the overtime rate of time-and-a-half, from 60 hours—where it was set in 2020—to 40 hours in 2032. The threshold will fall in four-hour increments starting in 2024.
Agriculture groups including New York’s apple industry lobbied against the change, arguing that it could force some farmers to close and sell their land. Labor groups and Democratic officials said farms should be able to cope because the change’s full effect won’t be felt for a decade and a tax credit enacted this year will help make up for increased overtime costs.
“It feels good that workers who have always been treated as second-class citizens will finally be treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve,” said Mario Cilento, president of the New York State AFL-CIO.
New York is one of seven states with laws allowing agricultural overtime, though only three have decided to lower the threshold to 40 hours, the legal overtime standard for workers in most other industries. The agriculture overtime threshold in California, which was set at 60 hours in 1976, dropped to 40 hours this year. Washington will implement a 40-hour farm overtime threshold in 2024.
New York orchards rely on seasonal workers at harvest time.
While Washington grows more apples than New York, the fruit has a long history in the Empire State. The first nursery to grow apples in New York opened in 1730, and iconic varieties like Cortland and Empire were first developed at a state farm in Central New York. State orchards produce 29.5 million bushels a year, according to the New York Apple Association Inc., a trade group. The state has more than 600 orchards covering more than 50,000 acres.
Dairy products make up roughly half the value of New York’s farm production, according to a 2019 state comptroller’s report. But while labor accounts for roughly 17% of expenses for dairy farmers, it makes up more than half for fruit and vegetable farmers, according to a 2021 Cornell University study.
Most of those costs come at harvest time, when there is a short window to pick crops. Orchards like Golden Harvest rely on temporary laborers, many from Jamaica, who use the federal H-2A guest worker visa program. Workers’ stays are limited, and several said they try to pack in as many hours as possible. The federal government sets a minimum wage, which is $15.66 an hour this year in New York.
“We came to work. Our boss gives us hours so we can get a decent paycheck,” said Beres Young, a 54-year-old worker from Jamaica who has been coming to Golden Harvest every autumn since 2008.
He was one of eight men moving from tree to tree with aluminum ladders, gently plucking Crispin apples with padded gloves on a recent Wednesday. They put the fruit into torso-mounted baskets that were then emptied, with a soft cloth cushion, into a tractor-pulled bin of just over 20 bushels.
Labor accounts for more than half of expenses for fruit and vegetable farmers.
Golden Harvest hires as many as 60 workers for the harvest season and provides housing in a building on-site. Workers’ hours are capped at 60, Mr. Grout said, because at the market price for apples, it wouldn’t make financial sense to pay the overtime wage rate.
Mr. Grout, who half-joked that perhaps he could grow houses instead by turning to residential development on his land, said some apples might stay on trees because at time-and-a-half, the income from their sale wouldn’t cover the cost to pick them.
Crew boss Christopher “Bigger” McEwan said he expects some longtime workers would instead take jobs in other states, where they don’t face hourly caps due to overtime requirements.
Almost three-quarters of New York H-2A workers received some overtime pay in 2021 and just under half reported their hours were capped, according to a Cornell University study released last year. Seventy-two percent of the 69 workers surveyed said they would be less likely to continue at their current job if hours were capped at 40 a week.
The situation is different on dairy farms, which usually have a smaller number of full-time workers and can’t use the H-2A program.
Luis Jimenez, who works at a dairy farm near Geneseo, N.Y., and is president of the labor group Alianza Agricola, called the overtime change long overdue. If anything, he said, it should be phased in sooner, as he needs more money to pay for rising costs of food and medical care.
“I’ve already been here for nearly 20 years. Why should I have to wait another 10?” said Mr. Jimenez, 38.
The orchards rely on temporary laborers who use the federal H-2A guest worker visa program.
Mr. Grout said he is concerned that the tax credit that backers of the overtime rule say should ease the impact on growers won’t have the expected effect, and could go away if the state’s budget situation worsens.
When the overtime threshold starts falling, he said, he’ll weigh hiring additional workers against planting fewer acres at Golden Harvest, which is known for its own line of Applejack brandy, and teems with visitors in the fall.
“A hobby farm isn’t going to feed the country,” he said.
New York state has more than 600 orchards covering more than 50,000 acres.
Write to Jimmy Vielkind at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
KINDERHOOK, N.Y.—Golden Harvest Farms has grown from a small apple-growing operation when Doug Grout’s grandfather opened it after World War II, to a multipronged business that includes a retail stand, cider press, distillery, tasting room and barbecue restaurant.
But Mr. Grout said he sees a cloudier future for the business due to new state regulations that will require him to increasingly pay more overtime to the farmworkers who pick his apples in the coming years, raising one of his primary costs.
“We were looking to buy another orchard, and that whole thing is tabled,” said Mr. Grout, 52 years old, who co-owns Golden Harvest with his father, as he drove between rows of Honeycrisp trees. “We’re stepping away. You’re going to see farms go out of business. This is very shortsighted.”
Golden Harvest Farms has expanded into a multipronged business over the years.
State Labor Commissioner
Roberta Reardon
signed an order last month that will gradually lower the threshold at which farmworkers must be paid the overtime rate of time-and-a-half, from 60 hours—where it was set in 2020—to 40 hours in 2032. The threshold will fall in four-hour increments starting in 2024.
Agriculture groups including New York’s apple industry lobbied against the change, arguing that it could force some farmers to close and sell their land. Labor groups and Democratic officials said farms should be able to cope because the change’s full effect won’t be felt for a decade and a tax credit enacted this year will help make up for increased overtime costs.
“It feels good that workers who have always been treated as second-class citizens will finally be treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve,” said Mario Cilento, president of the New York State AFL-CIO.
New York is one of seven states with laws allowing agricultural overtime, though only three have decided to lower the threshold to 40 hours, the legal overtime standard for workers in most other industries. The agriculture overtime threshold in California, which was set at 60 hours in 1976, dropped to 40 hours this year. Washington will implement a 40-hour farm overtime threshold in 2024.
New York orchards rely on seasonal workers at harvest time.
While Washington grows more apples than New York, the fruit has a long history in the Empire State. The first nursery to grow apples in New York opened in 1730, and iconic varieties like Cortland and Empire were first developed at a state farm in Central New York. State orchards produce 29.5 million bushels a year, according to the New York Apple Association Inc., a trade group. The state has more than 600 orchards covering more than 50,000 acres.
Dairy products make up roughly half the value of New York’s farm production, according to a 2019 state comptroller’s report. But while labor accounts for roughly 17% of expenses for dairy farmers, it makes up more than half for fruit and vegetable farmers, according to a 2021 Cornell University study.
Most of those costs come at harvest time, when there is a short window to pick crops. Orchards like Golden Harvest rely on temporary laborers, many from Jamaica, who use the federal H-2A guest worker visa program. Workers’ stays are limited, and several said they try to pack in as many hours as possible. The federal government sets a minimum wage, which is $15.66 an hour this year in New York.
“We came to work. Our boss gives us hours so we can get a decent paycheck,” said Beres Young, a 54-year-old worker from Jamaica who has been coming to Golden Harvest every autumn since 2008.
He was one of eight men moving from tree to tree with aluminum ladders, gently plucking Crispin apples with padded gloves on a recent Wednesday. They put the fruit into torso-mounted baskets that were then emptied, with a soft cloth cushion, into a tractor-pulled bin of just over 20 bushels.
Labor accounts for more than half of expenses for fruit and vegetable farmers.
Golden Harvest hires as many as 60 workers for the harvest season and provides housing in a building on-site. Workers’ hours are capped at 60, Mr. Grout said, because at the market price for apples, it wouldn’t make financial sense to pay the overtime wage rate.
Mr. Grout, who half-joked that perhaps he could grow houses instead by turning to residential development on his land, said some apples might stay on trees because at time-and-a-half, the income from their sale wouldn’t cover the cost to pick them.
Crew boss Christopher “Bigger” McEwan said he expects some longtime workers would instead take jobs in other states, where they don’t face hourly caps due to overtime requirements.
Almost three-quarters of New York H-2A workers received some overtime pay in 2021 and just under half reported their hours were capped, according to a Cornell University study released last year. Seventy-two percent of the 69 workers surveyed said they would be less likely to continue at their current job if hours were capped at 40 a week.
The situation is different on dairy farms, which usually have a smaller number of full-time workers and can’t use the H-2A program.
Luis Jimenez, who works at a dairy farm near Geneseo, N.Y., and is president of the labor group Alianza Agricola, called the overtime change long overdue. If anything, he said, it should be phased in sooner, as he needs more money to pay for rising costs of food and medical care.
“I’ve already been here for nearly 20 years. Why should I have to wait another 10?” said Mr. Jimenez, 38.
The orchards rely on temporary laborers who use the federal H-2A guest worker visa program.
Mr. Grout said he is concerned that the tax credit that backers of the overtime rule say should ease the impact on growers won’t have the expected effect, and could go away if the state’s budget situation worsens.
When the overtime threshold starts falling, he said, he’ll weigh hiring additional workers against planting fewer acres at Golden Harvest, which is known for its own line of Applejack brandy, and teems with visitors in the fall.
“A hobby farm isn’t going to feed the country,” he said.
New York state has more than 600 orchards covering more than 50,000 acres.
Write to Jimmy Vielkind at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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