Philip Martin comments on how changes in overtime rules may affect California farmworkers featured in Capital Public Radio

Most workers get overtime when they work more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week, but farmworkers do not. That will change for some California farmworkers starting in 2019.

The changes were passed into law in 2016. The first phase of the new rules start this month. The changes include reducing the number of hours per day and week at which overtime pay goes into effect for agricultural workers. Dr. Martin discusses how the new rules could impact bigger farm employers who employ dairy workers, irrigators, and equipment operators.

"They may opt to pay overtime for workers they're already trained to use expensive equipment, rather than trying to hire additional workers and implementing shorter shifts to avoid overtime," Dr. Martin is quoted as saying.

Read the full feature here