Schmick: Overtime Bill Biggest Win For Ag In 2021 Session

On Wednesday, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed into law a bill that established overtime for the Ag community. The new law will step the hours per week need to trigger overtime until it hits 40 hours in early 2024. Colfax Republican Joe Schmick said for him, that Ag overtime legislation was the biggest win for the farming community during the virtual session. He noted what make it special is the verbiage that prohibits workers from going back three year and claiming due overtime wages.

And Schmick said they’re not done addressing overtime in the Washington farming community.

“We were not able to get the seasonality portion of the bill that I know a lot of folks in Ag were looking for, but we’re going to try to do that next time, next year.  And we’ll try to amend that bill.”

Schmick noted housing dollars for H-2A workers were excluded from state run programs, which Schmick said was a disappointment for the farming community.

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