Rural Migrant Ministry’s Push for Lower Overtime for Farmworkers

A wage board at the state Department of Labor is expected to meet next month to accept a report recommending the overtime threshold be lowered from 60 to 40 hours a week, especially after the state budget included a tax credit to help farmers pay for the increase. Yet Governor Hochul has yet to state her support while the Republican candidate for Governor, Lee Zeldin, opposes. Rev. Richard Witt of Rural Migrant Ministry discusses this decades long struggle with Mark Dunlea of Hudson Mohawk Magazine.