Introduction
With the passage of SB 21-087: Concerning Agricultural Workers’ Rights, agricultural workers in Colorado were granted the right to overtime pay. 2023 marked the first phase-in period of these new rules and regulations, employers were required to pay a 50% premium for any hours worked in excess of 60 hours in a single week. This research set out to increase the Colorado Agricultural sector’s understanding of the implementation of the new overtime rules and provide context for the agricultural labor market. This study was funded by the Emerging Issues Grant program of the High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (HICAHS) located at Colorado State University.
The anonymous survey, available in both English and Spanish, was administered between May 27, 2024 and July 31, 2024 by the six Promotora Network Regional Directors. Targeted recruitment strategies ensured that the sample was diversified across employers, agricultural sectors, and geographies resulting in a representative cross-section of the agricultural workforce. While recruitment was split across numerous employers in Colorado, the data represents workers’ perspectives, not employer practices.
The anonymity and safety of all stakeholders is of utmost importance for this project. This survey did not collect data on employee names, employer names, counties, zip codes, or any other personal data that could identify either the worker or the employer. Before analysis, the data went through an additional cleaning process to redact any qualitative data deemed sensitive.
To date, this is the largest survey of agricultural workers in Colorado.
Total Workforce Summary
This study provides a measured baseline for the level of implementation of Weekly Overtime Requirements under the first phase-in period. The study found that 19.2% of the workforce is working under salaried employment (likely classified as exempt), 79.6% are paid hourly, and 1.2% at a piece rate. Overall, 37.6% of surveyed respondents worked more than 60 hours per week at least once throughout 2023. Some of these workers were employed under salaried contracts and indicated that their employment contract did not include overtime pay.
Salaried Employees
Overall, 19.2% of agricultural workers were paid by salary in 2023. Of those workers, 77.2% were employed in livestock (43%) or dairies (34.2%). Within the livestock and dairy industries, this accounts for 41.7% of the employees, which is a much higher ratio compared to field crops where only 7.8% of employees were salaried in 2023. While there are fewer salaried jobs in field crops and orchards/vineyards, some year-round workers tasked with irritation, pesticide application, or maintenance were also paid by salary.
Most salary workers are not paid overtime. More than half (50.9%) indicated that there was at least one week in 2023 wherein they worked more than 60 hours. However, many workers explained that their work contracts said that they were exempt from overtime pay due to their salaried employment status. Only 11% of salaried workers were paid the 50% premium for the overtime hours they worked.
Hourly Employees
Overall, 79.6% of agricultural workers were paid an hourly wage in 2023. Most hourly workers (65%) did not work more than 60 hours in a week in 2023. Men were more likely than women to have worked overtime hours at some point in 2023. Of the hourly workers who worked more than 60 hours in a single week, 29.5% were not paid overtime wages for some or all of those hours (n=193). Some of these workers noted that they were paid the normal wage rate for overtime hours, but not the 50% premium on their wages.
Seemingly, most workers who are working more than 60 hours a week are paid overtime wages. Workers noted that their employers were limiting hours to 56 hours or less a week, a noted change for workers who have been employed in agriculture for multiple years.
Violation Reporting
Wage theft and wage law violations were reported in 12.6% of the survey sample, however, only 5 in 75 workers took action to try to correct the error in their pay. The workers who did not attempt to resolve the pay issue explained that there are several reasons they did not take action to fix the pay error, however, the most frequently listed reason was not wanting to cause issues when their employer is providing their home.
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