Flexible harvest bill deserves a fair hearing

Farmworkers will be the first to know how much their incomes will change now that agricultural overtime rules have taken effect.

During the 2021 legislative session, ESSB 5172 ended the exemption for agricultural overtime, effectively forcing all farms in our state to begin paying overtime wages to farmworkers Jan. 1, 2022. The bill adopted a phased-in approach to overtime wages, with the overtime threshold set at 55 hours a week for 2022 before being decreased to 48 in 2023 and 40 in 2024. The bill originally included harvest flexibility, but the language was removed.

HB 1750 seeks to reintro...