California lawmakers are reviving a long-running debate over how to balance farmworker overtime pay with the financial realities facing agricultural employers.
Senate Bill 921, introduced by Sens. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, and Melissa Hurtado, D-Bakersfield, would create a payroll tax credit to help agricultural employers offset the cost of paying overtime wages to farmworkers. The bill is cosponsored by the California Farm Bureau and the California Association of Winegrape Growers.
Grove calls it a win-win solution for farmers and farmworkers and a straightforward bill that “means more overtime hours and better take-home pay for the folks who put food on America’s tables.”
Hurtado framed the proposal as a response to both worker and employer concerns.
“Behind every meal is a story of love, sacrifice and hard work in the fields,” she said. “SB 921 honors the sweat and sacrifice behind our food with a modern, fair approach to wages — because in agriculture, farms, workers and families rise or fall together.”
The bill closely mirrors SB 628, a 2025 proposal by Grove that sought a similar overtime tax credit but stalled in the Legislature after opposition raised concerns about cost and precedent. Supporters argue SB 921 is needed to address what they describe as unintended consequences of California’s agricultural overtime law, which phased in a 40-hour workweek threshold beginning in 2019.
According to research by Alexandra Hill, an agricultural economist at UC Berkeley, California farmworkers reported working fewer hours and earning less after the overtime changes took effect.
CAFB President Shannon Douglass said that “farmers warned the Legislature a decade ago that changes to the agricultural overtime law would reduce work hours and cost farmworkers wages, and those concerns have proven true.” Winegrape growers also pointed to actions in other states. CAWG President Natalie Collins said that “California lawmakers need to come together in a bipartisan manner, just as leaders have done in Oregon, Massachusetts and New York, to ensure farmworkers can earn overtime pay while keeping farms viable.”
