S. 3131Senate115th Congress (2017-2019)In Committee

Fairness for Farm Workers Act

AI-Generated Summary

Updated April 15, 2026 at 10:34 PM UTC

The Fairness for Farm Workers Act would change the Fair Labor Standards Act so that farm workers get the same overtime protections as other workers. It sets a schedule for lowering the weekly hour limit before overtime must be paid and removes several long‑standing exemptions that keep many agricultural employees from receiving overtime pay. The changes apply to all agricultural employers, with later start dates for smaller farms.

Key Provisions

Requires overtime pay (time‑and‑a‑half) for farm workers once weekly hours exceed a set limit, starting at 55 hours in 2019 and dropping to 40 hours by 2022 for employers with more than 25 employees; smaller employers follow the same schedule but start in 2022, reaching 40 hours by 2025.
Repeals the exemption that allowed family members of farm owners to be excluded from overtime rules.
Eliminates several other exemptions in the FLSA that kept agricultural workers from overtime coverage, including paragraphs that previously limited the law’s reach.
Updates the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act to align its exemption with the new overtime rules.

Legislative Activity

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1 earlier action

SenateIntro Referral Latest Action

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee

June 25, 2018

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SenateIntro Referral

Introduced in Senate

June 25, 2018

SenateIntro Referral

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee

June 25, 2018

Floor Debate

1 member

What members said about S. 3131 on the floor

1 Democrat

Sen. Kamala D. HarrisD-CA · Dec 18, 2018

Mr. President, it is with gratitude that I rise today to acknowledge Arturo S. Rodriguez for his 45 years of leadership and commitment to protecting and advancing the civil, political, and economic rights of farm workers, most notably as president of the United Farm Workers of America, or UFW.

Born the grandson of a cattle farmer in San Antonio, TX, in 1949, Arturo first learned of Cesar E. Chavez and California's farm worker movement in 1966. His passion for civil rights and social justice motivated him to become an active farm worker supporter as a student at Saint Mary's University, where he would later graduate in 1971 with a degree in sociology. After receiving a master's degree in social work from the University of Michigan in 1973, Arturo joined the farm worker movement full-time, working with Chavez for the next two decades to develop and train new organizers, manage UFW industry organizing campaigns, and oversee national boycott strategies that would increase wages and improve working conditions. Following Chavez's passing in 1993, Arturo became the second president of the UFW and committed himself to fulfilling Chavez's legacy of creating a more just and equitable food system that treated farm workers with the dignity and respect they deserved.

Arturo's presidency has been nothing short of extraordinary. Under his leadership, farm worker wages have risen to an average of $13.18 an hour, above State and Federal minimum wage laws. Arturo established industry-wide organizing campaigns resulting in 80 percent of the mushroom, rose, and strawberry workers now represented by a union contract. He held employers accountable for wage and hour laws, winning millions of dollars for workers in back wages and overtime pay. He won historic State legislation to provide overtime pay to farm workers and protect them from heat exposure.

As president of the largest and most active farm worker movement in the Nation, Arturo has also pushed a national agenda for immigrant and workers' rights. He led negotiations with major agricultural associations to develop the agricultural provisions in the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill passed in 2013. He and the UFW worked closely with the Obama White House to secure protections for farm workers from the harmful effects of pesticides, in addition to protections for children and parents as part of President Obama's immigration Executive actions. I was honored to work closely with him as a newly elected Member of the Senate to introduce the Fairness for Farm Workers Act, S. 3131, to strengthen critical Federal protections for farm workers as they face long hours and exposure to harsh working conditions.

Arturo's legacy represents the best of who we are as a nation. His unwavering commitment to bettering the lives of the most vulnerable epitomizes the kind of servant leader we should all

strive to be. His contributions to the farm worker movement and our Nation will have a lasting impact for generations to come.

Bill Text

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Introduced in SenateIssued June 25, 2018

115th CONGRESS

2d Session

S. 3131

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.

Short title

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

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)..