Farm worker advocates are sounding the alarm on overtime pay. One legal expert warns that this push could add more strain to an industry already facing major challenges.
“My thing with the overtime is it hurts the employee,” explained Shawn Packer, principal at JPH Law. “It hurts the employer, too, but it hurts the employee because you’re limiting the hours that they’re working, so that you’re not paying the overtime, so they’re actually making less money.”
Packer added that while there is a lot of advocacy surrounding the prevailing wage lawsuit, it ultimately takes money out of the pockets of farm workers.
When it comes to regulations, such as the heat rule, Packer said that it only adds to the problem.
“One of the things, especially when we started looking at the heat rule and everything else, that’s amazing to me is you’ve got these advocacy organizations that are pushing so hard to keep piece rate, but then we have these regulations that tell us to stop working. And the workers, that’s all they want to do is they want to make that piece rate.”
Bottom line: Packer says that despite all the efforts advocates make, the workers are still making less money.
Cattle markets are collapsing this week, and analysts say that several factors are at play. Consumer beef prices also remain near all-time highs, threatening long-term demand.
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Farmers who rely on H-2A workers will see a few key changes to speed up the process and make it fairer. On the ground, producers say labor issues create shortfalls in otherwise productive harvests.
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John Appel with the Farmers Business Network (FBN) joins us for a closer look at the 2026 Crop Protection Market Outlook Report.
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