Catherwood LibraryILR School

A case currently before the Washington State Supreme Court is asking to strike down an exclusion in federal and state labor laws that has prevented overtime pay for farm workers since 1938. That was the year that federal legislators created overtime protection laws, but excluded farm workers, with many states following the federal example. In the 1930s, agriculture was one of the few jobs available in the South for Black workers; Southern Democrats at the time agreed to vote for overtime protections as long as it excluded farm workers. The lawyer who is arguing the case of behalf of Washington state farm workers is hoping to argue that a law based on racial discrimination should be struck down, which would clear the way for farm workers in other states to mount similar lawsuits. California and New York have mandated in the last couple of years that farmers pay overtime, but Washington would be the first state to extend overtime through the courts. Critics from the Washington State Farm Bureau argue that the argument of racism ignores the real nature of farm work, which is that farming is not a 9-5 job. Farmers are also worried that the court might award three years of retroactive overtime pay, which would bankrupt many farms.