“Gov. Kathy Hochul, Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon’s decision to adopt the Farm Wage Board’s recommendation to reduce the overtime threshold for the state’s agriculture sector fundamentally alters and undermines thousands of working family farms already struggling to maintain operations. 

“With record-breaking inflation, supply chain issues, and heightened economic uncertainty compounded with a pre-existing and unrelenting strain of labor shortages and a restrictive regulatory climate in the state of New York, this will truly be a death knell for thousands of generational family farms who have battled to remain solvent in recent years.

“The impacted families live in our communities, are our neighbors and will inevitably be forced into incredible undue hardship. This decision wholly misses the mark and I implore Gov. Hochul and Commissioner Reardon to reconsider this decision.”