Racism against Farm Workers

 Statement of Teresa Romero, President, UFW

House Education and Labor Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee
From Excluded to Essential: Tracing the Racist Exclusion of Farmworkers, Domestic Workers, and Tipped Workers from the Fair Labor Standards Act
May 3, 2021 

Because of our nation’s racism and history of discrimination against farm workers, agricultural work has long been perceived as undesirable work. As a result, many of the country’s most vulnerable individuals work as farm workers. Roughly half of the nation’s 2.4 million farm workers are undocumented23 and approximately 10% of the workforce are H-2A workers, nonimmigrants whose ability to work and remain in the country is dependent on the employer that petitioned for them.24 The lack of immigration status and citizenship means farmworkers are often too fearful of retaliation and immigration enforcement to draw attention to themselves by complaining about workplace violations or seeking improved conditions. In this way, our nation’s racist exclusion of farm workers from key labor protections has perpetuated the vulnerability of agricultural workers, including by depriving them of the political power needed to improve their circumstances. 

In conclusion, now end the discriminatory treatment of agricultural workers regarding overtime pay and minimum wage in 

the Fair Labor Standards Act. The legislation would phase in overtime pay over a period of 4 years and would give smaller employers additional time to adjust to these changes. 

32 See, e.g. Colorado SB21-087, Oregon HB 2358
33 “How much would it cost consumers to give farm workers a significant raise?” Daniel Costa and Phil Martin, EPI Working Economics Blog, October 15, 2020, available at https://www.epi.org/blog/how-much-would-it-cost- consumers-to-give-farmworkers-a-significant-raise-a-40-increase-in-pay-would-cost-just-25-per-household/.

is the time to right wrongs that can no longer be justified or tolerated in a 

society where equal rights and equal justice are supposed to be more than academic theories or 

political rhetoric. In a world that is ever more conscious of the structural racism underpinning 

our society, we must end the racist exclusion of farm workers from FLSA’s overtime protection. 

We call on Congress to enact legislation such as Rep. Grijalva’s and now Vice President Harris’send the discriminatory treatment of agricultural workers regarding overtime pay and minimum wage in 

the Fair Labor Standards Act. The legislation would phase in overtime pay over a period of 4 years and would give smaller employers additional time to adjust to these changes. 

 

https://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/from-excluded-to-essential-tracing-the-racist-exclusion-of-farmworkers-domestic-workers-and-tipped-workers-from-the-fair-labor-standards-act

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgfOuLk6e20