Much like the agricultural harvest cycles it may affect, September 12, 2016, marks the planting season for the Phase-In Overtime for Agricultural Workers Act of 2016.

Assembly Bill 1066 (“AB1066”), signed into law by California Governor Brown, is an aggressive “phase-in” overtime bill, which will cultivate and change the wage and hour landscape for agricultural workers over the next decade or so.

Current California law exempts agricultural employees from certain typical overtime provisions. In particular, Industrial Welfare Order No. 14-2001 provides that agricultural workers can be paid their regular rate of pay for any hours up to ten (10) in a workday for six (6) days in a week, or sixty (60) hours per week. Overtime rates, paid at one-and-a-half (1.5) times the regular rate of pay in California, only kick in after ten hours in a workday, and for the first eight (8) hours on the seventh day of the workweek. Double-time rates, paid at two times the regular rate of pay, are paid after the eighth hour of work on the seventh day of the workweek.

New AB1066 overtime protections for agricultural workers will sprout up and grow or “phase in” starting next year, providing more and more protections to employees as each year passes.

Below is the schedule that agricultural employers will need to abide by to remain compliant with California law:

• Beginning January 1, 2017, all other provisions of existing laws regarding compensation for overtime work will apply to agricultural workers.

• Starting January 1, 2019, any employer with at least 26 employees must pay its agricultural employees overtime rates for any hours worked in excess of 9.5 per day, or any hours worked over 55 in any workweek. (Employers with 25 or fewer employees have until January 1, 2022, to become compliant.)

• Starting January 1, 2020, any employers with at least 26 employees must pay its an agricultural employees overtime rates for any hours worked in excess of 9 per day, or any hours worked over 50 in any workweek. (Employers with 25 or fewer employees have until January 1, 2023, to become compliant.)

• Starting January 1, 2021, any employers with at least 26 employees must pay its an agricultural employees overtime rates for any hours worked in excess of 8.5 per day, or any hours over 45 in any workweek. (Employers with 25 or fewer employees have until January 1, 2024, to become compliant.)

• Starting January 1, 2022, any employers with at least 26 employees must pay its an agricultural employees overtime rates for any hours worked in excess of 8 per day, or any hours over 40 in any workweek. (Employers with 25 or fewer employees have until January 1, 2024, to become compliant.)

• Starting January 1, 2022, any employer with at least 26 employees must pay double time to any worker in an agricultural occupation who works excess of 12 hours in one day. (Employers with 25 or fewer employees have until January 1, 2025, to become compliant.)

Companies with workers “employed in an agricultural occupation” will need to stay on top of this drastically changing wage and hour landscape.