The Exception Becomes the Rule: Democratic Senators Lead the Rollback of Agricultural Overtime During Farmworker Awareness Week

Today marks the beginning of Farmworker Awareness Week, observed March 25th through March 31st. It is a week dedicated to recognizing the essential workers who plant, tend, and harvest the food we depend on, often under grueling conditions with fewer workplace protections than other industries. This year, the week begins with urgent news from the State Capitol: the Colorado Senate passed SB 26-121, a bill that would raise the overtime threshold for agricultural workers to 56 hours per week for all employers. Every farmworker in Colorado could be required to labor for 16 hours more than other workers before earning a single dollar of overtime pay. The bill now moves to the House, where Colorado Representatives have an opportunity to reject this rollback and stand on the right side of history.

How We Got Here

For almost 100 years, agricultural workers have been explicitly excluded from the basic labor protections guaranteed to other workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. That exclusion was not accidental. It was a deliberate choice that reflected the racial politics of the era, designed to exempt the industries most dependent on Black and Latino labor. The consequences of this discrimination affected agricultural workers for generations.

In 2021, Colorado took an important step toward correcting that injustice by passing the Agricultural Workers' Rights Act (SB 21-087). That law gave farmworkers the right to minimum wage, collective bargaining, and established the first overtime protections in Colorado history for agricultural workers. After a three year phase-in period, the rules reached their final stage in 2025 with a weekly threshold of 48 hours and a "highly seasonal" exception allowing a 56-hour threshold for up to 22 weeks per year for many employers.

It was a hard-won victory. More than 250 comments were submitted to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) during the rulemaking period, including dozens by Project Protect. This deliberate process and the resulting rule would be washed away by SB 26-121, replacing a carefully constructed protection with a weakened standard applied uniformly to every agricultural employer in Colorado.

Senator Rodriguez's Reversal

What makes this week's Senate vote particularly disappointing is who led the charge. Unfortunately, after voting for SB 21-087—which required CDLE to consider the racist origins of the exclusion and the fundamental right to standards that protect the health and welfare of employees—Senate Majority Leader Rodriguez turned his back on workers by sponsoring SB 26-121. If passed, the legislation would extend the highly seasonal exception to every employer, every week of the year.

Senator Rodriguez represents Denver. The farmworkers most affected by this bill live and work in rural Colorado, in the San Luis Valley, the Eastern Plains, and the Western Slope, communities already navigating wage cuts, immigration enforcement, and economic insecurity. They did not get a seat at the table when the Senate Majority Leader decided the 2021 law needed fixing.

The Wrong Time for a Rollback

Agricultural workers are navigating compounding pressures in 2026. USDA regulatory changes are already reducing wages for many workers by 8 to 15 percent. ICE enforcement has created a climate of fear that leaves immigrant workers, who make up a disproportionate share of the agricultural workforce, with even less power to assert their rights on the job. Weakening overtime protections in this environment does not balance the needs of employers and workers. It deepens an inequality that Colorado spent years trying to correct.

Farmworker Awareness Week exists to remind us that the people feeding this country deserve dignity, safety, and fair pay. It is deeply troubling that Colorado legislators are choosing to mark the week by making it easier to demand more hours from workers before they see a dollar of overtime.

What Needs to Happen Now

The Colorado House must reject SB 26-121! Representatives have the opportunity to stand with farmworkers and refuse to move the goalposts on protections that took nearly a century to win. Farmworker Awareness Week should mean something beyond proclamations. It should mean policy that matches the values we claim to hold.

Find your state House representative here and urge them to vote NO on SB 26-121.

If you have questions about this issue or want to support our work, please contact Hunter Knapp at hunter@projectprotectfoodsystems.org.