Sponsors (4)
The bill creates a single national maximum-hour ceiling for agricultural work that simplifies compliance and lowers administrative costs for employers but does so by preempting shorter state caps, likely increasing hours and health risks for farmworkers and reducing state-level protective authority.
Employers (especially multi-state farmers and small agricultural businesses) gain a uniform federal maximum-hour ceiling (allowing up to 60-hour workweeks) that reduces compliance complexity and administrative costs across states.
State governments retain authority to set other labor standards (wages, safety, etc.), so states can still regulate many working conditions even though maximum-hour ceilings are standardized.
Farmworkers in states that previously had shorter maximum-workweek caps can now be required to work up to 60 hours per week, increasing overtime exposure and elevating risks of injuries, illness, and other health/safety harms.
State governments lose the ability to protect farmworkers via shorter maximum-workweek limits, reducing local policy control over labor protections.
Taxpayers and public payers could face higher indirect costs (healthcare, social services, workers' compensation) if longer agricultural workweeks lead to worse worker health and more injuries.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Preempts state laws that set a maximum agricultural workweek below 60 hours, making 60 hours the federal ceiling for such state limits.
Official title: To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide for the preemption of certain State overtime laws for agricultural employees.
Introduced January 7, 2025 by Claudia Tenney · Last progress January 7, 2025
Amends federal law to block states from setting a maximum workweek for agricultural employees that is shorter than 60 hours. It changes the current federal preemption language so that any state law imposing a maximum agricultural workweek below 60 hours is expressly preempted by federal law. The change directly constrains state labor law authority for farmworkers and shifts the floor for maximum weekly hours in agriculture to 60 hours nationwide. It does not appropriate funds or create new programs.