The Importance of Overtime Pay for Agricultural Workers
March 11, 2026
Overtime pay for agricultural workers is under attack. SB 26-121 would require extremely long work weeks and worsen an already inequitable overtime pay system. Support labor rights by telling your legislator to vote NO on SB 26-121!
When Congress enacted the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, agricultural and domestic workers were excluded from basic workplace protections, such as minimum wage and overtime. These exclusions intentionally carve out black and brown workers who overwhelmingly make up those work forces. Nearly 90 years later, the consequences of that racist decision persist, and agricultural workers still lack equal protections guaranteed to other workers.
In 2021, Colorado took an important step towards correcting this injustice by passing the Agricultural Workers’ Rights Act (SB 21-087), which guaranteed important economic rights like minimum wage and collective bargaining for agricultural workers. SB 21-087 also tasked the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) to create meaningful overtime protections for agricultural workers that consider the inequity and racist origins of agricultural workers’ historical exclusion and the fundamental right of all workers to overtime and maximum hours standards that protect health and safety.
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The rules CDLE created set overtime eligibility for agricultural workers at 48 hours per week, with a “highly seasonal” exception of 56 hours for up to 22 weeks each year. Rather than requiring overtime pay after 12 hours in a day, the current rules only provide a single additional payment of $15.16 for workers who labor for more than 15 hours in a single day. This falls far short of protecting the fundamental right of all workers to overtime and maximum hours standards that protect health and safety.
More than a third (36%) of the 587 agricultural workers surveyed by Project Protect in 2025 reported that they were notified that they work for a “highly seasonal” employer and 32% reported working more than 56 hours in a week. The research shows that working 60 or more hours per week increases the risk of workplace injury by 23% and working 12 or more hours in a single day increases the risk of workplace injury by 37%.
The Colorado legislature must act to provide equitable protections for agricultural workers by supporting SB 26-081 to make them eligible for overtime pay after 40 hours in a week or 12 hours in a day. Additionally, the Colorado legislature should reject any bill that would force agricultural workers to work even longer hours before earning overtime pay. SB 26-121 would roll back overtime protections for agricultural workers by worsening an already inequitable overtime wage threshold.
The agricultural workforce in Colorado is disproportionately made up of immigrant workers who are impacted by the climate of fear created by ICE. In addition, regulatory changes by the USDA are already decreasing agricultural worker wages by 8% to 15% in 2026. Decreasing wages while increasing hours worked will harm worker health and deepen economic inequality. Colorado should take steps to ensure a strong, healthy workforce, not roll back protections for essential workers who already experience economic insecurity.
Find your legislator here and tell them to vote YES on SB 26-081 and NO on SB 26-121!
Join the organizations supporting equitable overtime for agricultural workers by signing this letter. If you have questions about this issue or want to support our work, please contact Hunter Knapp at hunter@projectprotectfoodsystems.org.
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