The California State Beekeepers Association is jumping on a study showing workers have earned less since the state passed an ag overtime law in 2016. The association is highlighting that research in its push for a measure to relax the rules for beekeepers and their workers.
The law, AB 1066, triggers overtime pay after eight hours a day or 40 hours a week. The association’s AB 3056 would soften that to nine hours per day or 50 hours per week. Yet it does not go so far as to rescind AB 1066 and revert the cap to 10 hours per day or 60 hours per week.
According to the trade group, beekeepers are reporting that take-home pay is going down, despite paying workers well above minimum wage. As production expenses rise, overtime pay is one of the few remaining costs they can control and beekeepers, like many ag employers, are avoiding overtime by hiring more workers.
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Republican Asm. James Gallagher of Yuba City has authored AB 3056, and it awaits the first committee hearing.
Keep in mind: Republican-led initiatives targeting a progressive labor law rarely gain traction in the Legislature.
But after a political flareup last year over a Democratic chair dodging a Republican bill on sex trafficking, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas has vowed to grant every bill a hearing.
