With the New Year right around the corner, agricultural employers must review and update their overtime policies yet again to comply with Assembly Bill 1066. The timetable created by Assembly Bill 1066 back in 2016 will continue to be felt in the agricultural community until 2025. If you recall, the new law passed gradual change to overtime rules in order to align California Wage Order 14 overtime to be paid on the same basis as most other industries.
The changes are a phase-in schedule that require employers with 26 or more employees to pay overtime, effective January 01, 2020, after nine hours of work. The schedule for changes can be found here. Small employers with 25 or less employees can still pay straight wages for workdays that are 10 hours or less, or workweeks that are 60 hours or less. As a reminder, these small employers with 25 or less employees will be effected beginning January 01, 2022, at which point they will be required to pay overtime for workdays greater than 9.5 or workweeks over 55 hours.
Management can expect to see increased costs for labor for 2020 and beyond. If you are currently unsure how to plan for and calculate rates for overtime calculations, contact the experts at the Saqui Law Group, a division of Dowling Aaron Incorporated.