California Farmworker Labor Laws: Wages, Overtime and Union Rights

Part of our California Labor Laws by Job library31 guides→

California farmworkers are covered by Wage Order 14 and the Labor Code, which give them minimum wage, overtime after 8 hours a day or 40 a week, paid rest breaks, meal breaks, heat protections and pay for time outside piece-rate work, plus union rights under California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which fills a gap left by federal labor law. These rights apply whether you are paid by the hour or by the piece, whether you were hired by the grower or a farm labor contractor, and regardless of immigration status.

The details matter in dollars. Since January 1, 2025, every agricultural employer, regardless of size, must pay overtime after 8 hours in a day. A worker earning $18 an hour who works six 10-hour days is owed 20 hours of overtime that week, not 12 and not zero.

This guide is a statewide rights checklist for farmworkers. For a closer look at overtime, heat and injuries in the Central Valley, see our local guide to farmworker rights in Kern and Fresno counties.

Who Wage Order 14 covers

Wage Order 14 applies to people employed in agricultural occupations, whether paid by the hour, by the piece or otherwise. That includes preparing and caring for farmland, planting, irrigating, weeding, thinning and pruning, spraying, harvesting and field packing, hauling crops on the farm or to the first place of processing, and raising livestock and poultry.

Packing-house and processing work is usually covered by a different order: Wage Order 8 for products after harvest, or Wage Order 13 for a grower’s own crop prepared in a permanent structure. The overtime rules described below are specific to agricultural workers under Wage Order 14 and Labor Code 857 to 864.

By the numbers8 hours

Minimum wage for farmworkers in 2026

Farmworkers are owed at least the state minimum wage of $16.90 an hour in 2026, rising to $17.40 on January 1, 2027, or a higher city or county minimum wage where one applies. Check our minimum wage by city page.

A new law will add a higher floor for some workers. AB 2646, signed on September 30, 2026, adds Labor Code 1208, which sets a $19.75 hourly minimum for “approved agricultural employees” (workers from outside California hired for temporary or seasonal farm work through a job order approved by the state) and for “corresponding employees” (California residents doing the same or substantially similar work for the same employer in the same county at the same time). The rate will be adjusted every January by the Social Security cost-of-living increase. Read more in our news post on the $19.75 farmworker minimum wage.

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Overtime for farmworkers: fully phased in

AB 1066 (Labor Code 857 to 864) phased in overtime for agricultural workers over several years. Large employers reached the 8-hour/40-hour standard in 2022, and employers with 25 or fewer employees reached it on January 1, 2025. Today, under Wage Order 14, section 3, every agricultural employer must pay:

Hours worked	Rate owed
Over 8 hours in a workday, or over 40 hours in a workweek	1.5 times your regular rate
Over 12 hours in a workday	2 times your regular rate
First 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek	1.5 times your regular rate
Over 8 hours on the seventh consecutive day	2 times your regular rate

Wage Order 14 has no alternative workweek option, so a grower cannot avoid daily overtime by scheduling 10-hour days.

💡 Example: José earns $18 an hour and works six 10-hour days. Each day includes 2 hours of daily overtime (12 hours total). His remaining 48 straight-time hours exceed 40 by 8, so 8 more hours are weekly overtime. He is owed 40 × $18 = $720 plus 20 × $27 = $540, or $1,260 for the week. (Hypothetical.)

If you are paid by the piece, overtime is still owed, calculated on your regular rate for the week. Our wage and hour calculator can help you check your pay.

Piece-rate pay: rest breaks and waiting time must be paid separately

Labor Code 226.2 protects workers paid by the bin, box, tree or row. If you are paid by the piece, your employer must:

• Pay your rest and recovery periods separately, at the higher of your average hourly rate for the week or the minimum wage;
• Pay “other nonproductive time,” such as waiting for bins, equipment repairs, mandatory meetings or travel between fields under the employer’s control, at no less than the minimum wage; and
• List those hours, rates and amounts separately on your pay stub.

A piece rate that only pays for what you pick, with nothing for breaks or waiting, generally does not comply.

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Breaks and heat protection in the fields

Under Wage Order 14 and Labor Code 512, you are entitled to a 30-minute meal break if you work more than 5 hours (waivable only if the day is 6 hours or less), a second meal break after 10 hours, and a paid 10-minute rest break for every 4 hours worked or major fraction of 4 hours. A missed meal or rest break earns one additional hour of pay at your regular rate for each day (Labor Code 226.7).

Cal/OSHA’s outdoor heat standard (8 CCR 3395) adds protections that matter on every summer shift:

• Water: free, fresh drinking water, enough for at least one quart per worker per hour, located as close as practicable to where you work.
• Shade: shade must be up when it is over 80°F, with room for everyone on a rest or recovery break.
• Cool-down rest: you may take a preventive cool-down rest in the shade whenever you need one, and you cannot be ordered back to work until symptoms are gone, and in no case for at least 5 minutes plus the time to reach the shade.
• High heat (95°F and up): in agriculture, the employer must make sure you take a 10-minute cool-down rest at least every 2 hours.

Key fact

Farm labor contractors: the grower can share liability

Many farmworkers are hired by a farm labor contractor rather than the grower. Labor Code 2810.3 makes a “client employer” share all civil legal responsibility with the labor contractor for unpaid wages and for failing to carry workers’ compensation insurance, when the grower has 25 or more workers in total, more than 5 supplied by contractors, and the work is part of the grower’s usual business on its land. Fieldwork for a grower almost always is. You must give the grower 30 days’ notice before suing it under this section, and neither the contractor nor the grower may retaliate against you for doing so.

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H-2A workers

H-2A is a federal visa program that lets growers hire workers from other countries for temporary or seasonal farm work. H-2A workers have contract and federal protections set by the U.S. Department of Labor, and those federal rules have been changing. California wage and hour laws, including minimum wage, overtime, breaks and heat rules, still apply to H-2A workers employed in California, and AB 2646 will set the $19.75 minimum described above for workers hired through state-approved out-of-state job orders and their corresponding local coworkers.

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Your right to organize under the ALRA

California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act gives farmworkers a right to self-organization, to form, join or help a union, to bargain collectively through representatives of their choosing, and to act together for mutual aid or protection, such as jointly complaining about pay or conditions (Labor Code 1152). You also have the right not to take part.

It is an unfair labor practice for an agricultural employer to interfere with, restrain or coerce workers in using those rights, or to discriminate in hiring or job terms to encourage or discourage union membership (Labor Code 1153). These charges are handled by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB). Timing matters: the ALRB generally cannot issue a complaint over conduct that happened more than six months before the charge was filed and served (Labor Code 1160.2).

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Retaliation and immigration status

You cannot be fired, demoted, threatened or blacklisted for complaining about wages, filing a wage claim (Labor Code 98.6), reporting heat or safety hazards (Labor Code 6310), or reporting suspected legal violations (Labor Code 1102.5). Under Labor Code 1171.5, California’s labor protections and remedies are available regardless of immigration status, and immigration status is irrelevant to whether the employer is liable. Threats about immigration status in response to a complaint can be unlawful retaliation in their own right. See our retaliation claims page.

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What to do if your rights were violated

1. Write down your hours every day, including start and stop times, breaks, and time spent waiting or traveling between fields.
2. Keep every pay stub and compare the hours, piece counts and any separate pay for rest and nonproductive time.
3. Note who hired and supervises you: the contractor’s name and license, and the grower or ranch name.
4. Photograph missing water or shade if you can do so safely.
5. Act within the deadlines. Most wage claims have a three-year limit, and ALRB charges generally six months.
6. Get a free case review. Our wage and hour attorneys represent workers only, and we speak Spanish.

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Frequently asked questions

Do farmworkers get overtime after 8 hours in California?

Yes. Since January 1, 2025, all agricultural employers, regardless of size, must pay time and a half after 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week, and double time after 12 hours in a day.

Do piece-rate farmworkers get paid for rest breaks?

Yes. Labor Code 226.2 requires separate pay for rest and recovery periods, at the higher of your average hourly rate or minimum wage, plus at least minimum wage for other nonproductive time.

Can I be fired for joining or talking about a union?

No. The ALRA protects your right to organize and act together with coworkers, and interfering with those rights is an unfair labor practice. Charges generally must be filed with the ALRB within six months.

Am I protected if I’m undocumented?

Yes. Labor Code 1171.5 makes California’s labor protections and remedies available regardless of immigration status, except reinstatement where federal law prohibits it.

Who is responsible if the labor contractor doesn’t pay me?

Both the contractor and, in most cases, the grower. Labor Code 2810.3 makes a client employer with 25 or more workers share liability for unpaid wages of contractor-supplied workers doing its regular work.

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