Sponsors (4)
The bill standardizes and expands permissible agricultural workweeks (up to 60 hours) to ease employer scheduling and multistate compliance, but does so at the expense of worker safety and stronger state protections, potentially increasing health and public costs.
Farmers and small agricultural employers: may lawfully schedule up to 60-hour workweeks statewide, giving them greater flexibility to meet seasonal labor demands.
Multistate agricultural employers and state governments: a single federal maximum-workweek standard simplifies compliance and reduces the complexity of following different state rules.
Agricultural workers: allowed longer legally permissible workweeks (up to 60 hours) which increases their risk of fatigue, workplace injury, and related health harms.
Agricultural workers and state governments: removes stronger state-level limits where they exist, reducing local control and eliminating higher protections some workers currently have.
Rural communities and taxpayers: longer workhours could raise public costs from increased medical care, lost productivity, and other safety-related expenditures.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 7, 2025 by Claudia Tenney · Last progress January 7, 2025
Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act to make federal law override any State law that sets a maximum workweek for agricultural employees of less than 60 hours, allowing agricultural employers to schedule up to a 60-hour workweek without being superseded by stricter state limits. One short provision only designates an official short title and does not change substance of law. The change adds a new federal preemption rule into the FLSA and adjusts existing language so that state limits below 60 hours are displaced by federal law; it does not itself set overtime pay rates or create new federal spending.