Governing Agriculture

In the United States, government has regulated agricultural work force significantly, such as the enforcement and changes in FLSA (The Fair Labor Standards Act) “ which was originally enacted in 1938, guarantees most workers a minimum wage for each hour worked. FLSA also provides for overtime pay by requiring that most employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek be paid one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for each hour over forty hours per week. FLSA further requires employers to comply with recordkeeping requirements, including maintaining payroll records for employees. However, since 1966 this law is no longer applicable to farmers. Because agricultural workers who are paid on a piecework basis rather than an hourly basis are entitled to receive the minimum wage — their average earnings should be sufficient to yield an average hourly wage at least equivalent to the minimum wage. The overtime pay provisions of FLSA, however, are still not applicable to farmworkers. Further, the many agricultural workers employed on smaller farms — any farm that employs fewer than roughly seven workers in a calendar quarter — are not even protected by the minimum wage provisions of the FLSA.” (US Labor Law for Farmworkers)

Along with FLSA, other laws include, “the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act of 1983 (or AWPA), requires employers to disclose and comply with the terms of the jobs they offer, and upholds some safety standards. However, this law does NOT provide workers with access to collective bargaining or unions. These conditions have not prevented farmers from organizing anyway, by Collective bargaining through unions neutralizes the power imbalance between workers and growers, thus empowering workers to stand up and speak out about the injustices affecting them. Union contracts can mean, Fair wages, Job security, Enforcement of safety and decent sanitation standards, A grievance procedure that grants them the ability to complain when their rights are violated and healthcare. 

Including the lack of collective bargaining and safety standards, there are no laws in which protect agricultural workers in basic labor such as, workers’ compensation, health insurance and disability insurance.

So for these employers, what happens when something bad happens? They are forced to find a way to put bread on the table. The agricultural industry is not only abandoned to the injustice of basic employer protection laws and wages, but also in child labor protection.” (LABOR LAWS) It is stated that,  “Farm work is uniquely dangerous, leaving roughly 3,400 children and adolescents injured in 2009. Far from the bucolic ideal of the yeoman family, much of this sector today involves impoverished Latino migrant families. Farms can currently hire kids as young as 12 with parental consent. According to a 2010 Human Rights Watch report, threats facing child workers include pesticides, heat stress, accidents, employer abuse and massive school drop-out rates.

The right’s fight against child labor laws coincides with a small push in the other direction from the Obama administration. Following years of pressure from advocates, the Labor Department has proposed new farm labor rules that would bar children under 16 from handling certain hazardous equipment and engaging in “agricultural work with animals and in pesticide handling, timber operations, manure pits and storage bins.” Activists praised the initiative, but said it was only a small step toward addressing child exploitation in agriculture.” (Chen, 2015)

Children as young as 12 years of age, legally are allowed to work on a farm with parent consent and are not allowed to work with hazardous material. Where does this leave the other teenagers then? Because of laws that don’t regulate the hours of farm workers, teens are put in danger of health risks in order to get the job done. There is great injustice in the government not supervising protection rights for farm employers or employees, the country relies solely on agriculture, it is a shame that there is not a greater respect for it and the work they put in to feed and care for our community. Perhaps this is the very reason why farmers have the greatest work ethic, there is no one there to bail them out or make excuses for their job not to get done. 

Works Cited

Chen, M. (2015, June 29). States Attempt to Instill 'Work Ethic' by Rolling Back Child Labor Protections. Retrieved from https://www.thenation.com/article/states-attempt-instill-work-ethic-rolling-back-child-labor-protections/

LABOR LAWS. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://nfwm.org/resources/labor-laws/

US Labor Law for Farmworkers. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.farmworkerjustice.org/advocacy-and-programs/us-labor-law-farmworkers