California Wage Order 8: Products After Harvest Industry Rules

California Wage Order 8 covers workers at businesses that prepare farm, dairy, meat, poultry, egg and seafood products for distribution after harvest: commercial packing houses, coolers, cotton gins, nut hullers, egg candling plants, dairies that process milk commercially, and commercial slaughterhouses. It sets the overtime, break, reporting-time, uniform and recordkeeping rules for those jobs, and adds a special rule for long harvest-season weeks: a mandatory day off after 72 hours of work.

Order 8 is easy to confuse with other orders, because almost identical work can fall under three different orders depending on whose crop it is and where the work happens. And the posted copy is partly outdated: it still prints the 2017–2020 minimum wage table, while the state minimum wage is $16.90 an hour in 2026 and $17.40 on January 1, 2027.

This guide explains who Order 8 covers, how it differs from Orders 13 and 14, its exemptions, overtime and the 72-hour rule, meal and rest breaks, reporting time, uniforms and equipment, meal and lodging credits, records, and what to do if you were underpaid.

Who Wage Order 8 covers

Order 8 applies to any business operated for the purpose of “grading, sorting, cleaning, drying, cooling, icing, packing, dehydrating, cracking, shelling, candling, separating, slaughtering, picking, plucking, shucking, pasteurizing, fermenting, ripening, molding, or otherwise preparing any agricultural, horticultural, egg, poultry, meat, seafood, rabbit, or dairy product for distribution,” including all incidental operations (Order 8, §2(H); Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, §11080).

The Labor Commissioner’s “Which IWC Order?” guide lists examples such as citrus and deciduous fruit packing, fresh vegetable packing, commercial cotton gins, nut hulling and shelling, egg candling and packing, dried fruit processing, commercial feed mills, commercial meat and poultry packing houses, commercial rice drying, beet sugar mills, olive oil production, and moving packing plants that bring a rig into a grower’s field and work on the crop the way a commercial packing house would.

By the numbers72 hours

Order 8, Order 13 or Order 14?

The key questions are whose product it is and where and how the work is done. Based on the Labor Commissioner’s classification guide:

Situation	Usual wage order
Growing, cultivating and harvesting, including field packing and hauling the crop to the first place of processing or distribution	Order 14 (agricultural occupations)
Packing or processing the grower’s own crop in a permanent structure on the farm, or on a moving packing plant on the grower’s land	Order 13
Handling, packing or processing someone else’s product, a purchased crop, or cooperative warehousing, cooling, grading, packing or ginning	Order 8
Making products such as sausage from purchased cuts of meat, or refining purchased cane sugar	Order 1 (manufacturing)

The guide notes that if a grower’s packing shed handles another employer’s product, “even ‘a little for a neighbor,'” it becomes a commercial operation under Order 8. That distinction matters because each order has its own details on hours, days off and working conditions. For field work, see our guide to farmworker rights in Kern and Fresno counties.

Coverage follows the employer’s main business, so office staff and mechanics at a commercial packing house are generally under Order 8 too.

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Exemptions

Properly classified executive, administrative and professional employees are exempt from the hours, overtime and break sections (§§3–12). They must be primarily engaged in exempt duties, regularly use discretion and independent judgment, and earn a salary of at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time work: $70,304 a year in 2026 and $72,384 in 2027. Shed supervisors and “leads” who mostly do the same work as their crews often don’t meet the duties test; see misclassified exempt employees.

Order 8 also excludes the employer’s parent, spouse or child and national service participants, and covers government employees only for minimum wage, meals and lodging, and penalties.

Overtime and the 72-hour mandatory day off

Order 8 uses the standard California overtime schedule: time and a half for hours over 8 in a workday (up to 12), over 40 in a workweek, and for the first 8 hours on the seventh consecutive workday; double time for hours over 12 in a day and over 8 on the seventh day (§3(A)(3)).

What makes Order 8 different is the mandatory day off (§3(A)(2)). An employee may work up to 72 hours in a workweek, after which the employee must have a 24-hour period off duty. Exceptions:

• In the grape and tree fruit industry, key personnel (receivers, loaders, forklift operators, shipping clerks and maintenance workers) may be exempt from the mandatory day off.
• In cotton ginning and tree nut hulling and shelling, every employee has a voluntary right to opt out in writing and can withdraw that opt-out with at least 5 days’ written notice.
• No employer may discriminate against an employee who wants 24 hours off after working 72 hours.
• Employers that let anyone work more than 72 hours must give each employee a copy of the exemption provisions in English and Spanish and keep them posted.

💡 Example: Ana works on a packing line at $18 an hour, six days in a row, 12 hours a day, during peak season: 72 hours. Each day’s hours 9 through 12 are daily overtime (24 hours total). Of her remaining 48 straight-time hours, 8 exceed the 40-hour weekly limit. So she is owed 40 hours × $18 = $720, plus 32 overtime hours × $27 = $864, for $1,584. Having hit 72 hours, she must get a 24-hour day off unless a written exemption applies. (Hypothetical.)

Two more Order 8 hours rules:

• Work recesses (§3(F)). If the employer declares a recess of at least half an hour (other than a meal period), tells workers when to return and lets them leave the premises, the recess need not be paid, but there can be no more than two such recesses per shift, totaling no more than 2 hours. Work stoppages of less than half an hour can’t be deducted from hours worked.
• Alternative workweeks (§3(B)). A schedule of up to 10 hours a day in a 40-hour week requires a two-thirds secret-ballot vote and must provide at least two consecutive days off each week. See alternative workweeks and 12-hour shifts.

Drivers whose hours are regulated by federal or California driver hours-of-service rules are outside the hours section (§3(K)).

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Meal and rest breaks

• Meal periods (§11; Labor Code §512): 30 minutes when you work more than 5 hours, and a second 30 minutes when you work more than 10 hours, with the same limited waivers that apply statewide. An on-duty meal period requires both that the work prevents relief and a written agreement you can revoke in writing.
• Rest periods (§12): 10 minutes of paid rest for every 4 hours worked or major fraction thereof, not required if total daily work time is under 3½ hours.
• Night shifts: if a meal period falls on a shift that begins or ends between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., hot food and drink (or a way to heat food) and a sheltered place to eat must be available (§3(G)).
• Premiums: one hour of pay at your regular rate for each workday a meal period is missed, and one for each workday a rest period is missed (Labor Code §226.7). See meal and rest break premiums.

By the numbers$16.90

Reporting time, split shifts and recesses

Packing work depends on product arriving, so early send-homes happen. If you’re required to report and are given no work or less than half your scheduled day, Order 8 requires pay for half the scheduled day, not less than 2 hours or more than 4, at your regular rate. A second call-in the same day with less than 2 hours of work earns 2 hours’ pay (§5). The exceptions cover threats to people or property, utility failures, and acts of God or other causes beyond the employer’s control. Whether a late delivery of fruit qualifies is a fact question.

A split shift earns one extra hour’s pay at the minimum wage (§4(C)). Our guide to split-shift and reporting time pay explains how these rules interact.

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Uniforms, protective gear, meals and lodging

If the employer requires a uniform of distinctive design or color, it must provide and maintain it. Required tools and equipment must also be employer-provided, except that employees earning at least twice the minimum wage can be required to supply hand tools customarily used in the trade (§9). Protective apparel and safety equipment regulated by Cal/OSHA’s standards board are handled under those rules instead. Other necessary job costs can be reimbursable under Labor Code §2802; see expense reimbursement.

Housing and meals can count toward the minimum wage only under a voluntary written agreement, and only up to DIR’s current maximums. The figures printed in Order 8 are from 2017–2020; the 2026 figures from the statewide minimum wage order (MW-2026) are:

Credit (2026, all employers)	Maximum
Room occupied alone / shared	$79.46 / $65.59 per week
Apartment	Two-thirds of ordinary rental value, up to $954.43 per month
Apartment, couple both employed	Two-thirds of ordinary rental value, up to $1,411.85 per month
Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner	$6.10 / $8.42 / $11.28

Employees can’t be required to share a bed, can’t be charged for meals they didn’t receive or lodging they didn’t use, and, if they must live in employer housing as a condition of the job, can’t be charged rent above these values (§10).

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Seating, temperature and records

Sorters and graders whose work reasonably permits sitting must get suitable seats (§14). Where the work requires temperatures below 60°F, as in coolers, a heated room of at least 68°F must be available for warming up (§15).

Employers must keep time records showing when each work period starts and ends, meal periods, split-shift intervals and daily totals; for piece-rate or incentive pay, they must explain the rates or formula to workers and keep accurate production records. Records must be kept for at least three years in California (§7).

The Industrial Welfare Commission was defunded in 2004, but its orders still apply, and DIR updates the wage and credit figures yearly (Labor Code §1182.13). Use $16.90 for 2026 and $17.40 for 2027, or a higher local rate (see minimum wage by city). Where the Labor Code gives you more than the order, the Labor Code controls.

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What to do if you were underpaid

1. Identify the right order. Ask whose crop or product you were handling and whether the operation packs for other growers.
2. Track your hours, including recesses, early send-homes and missed breaks. Employers can’t stop you from keeping your own record (Labor Code §1174(d)).
3. Check overtime on your stubs, including the weekly 40-hour calculation. Our wage and hour calculator can help.
4. Note 72-hour weeks with no day off, and any pressure not to take one.
5. File within the deadline. Most wage claims must be brought within three years (Code of Civil Procedure §338).
6. Get advice about a Labor Commissioner claim versus a lawsuit; see your options compared.

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Frequently asked questions

Does Wage Order 8 apply to packing house workers?

Commercial packing houses that handle other growers’ produce are classic Order 8 employers. A grower packing only its own crop in a permanent shed on the farm is usually under Order 13 instead.

How many hours can I be made to work in a week under Order 8?

After 72 hours in a workweek you must get a 24-hour period off, unless you fall into a listed exemption (certain grape and tree fruit key personnel) or you work in cotton ginning or tree nut hulling and shelling and opted out in writing.

Do I get daily overtime under Order 8?

Yes. Order 8 requires time and a half after 8 hours in a day and double time after 12, plus weekly and seventh-day overtime.

Can my employer make me wait unpaid when the line stops?

Only if the employer declares a recess of at least half an hour, tells you when to return and lets you leave. Shorter stoppages are paid time, and recesses are limited to two per shift and 2 hours total.

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