Every California farm now pays overtime after 8 hours a day, and unions can organize by signed cards instead of a secret ballot. Here is how both laws work, where the Kern court fight stands and what it means for ag property.
California farmworker overtime is set by Assembly Bill 1066, signed Sept. 12, 2016, which phased agricultural workers onto an 8-hour day and 40-hour week. Employers with more than 25 workers reached that standard in 2022, and smaller employers on Jan. 1, 2025. A separate law, AB 2183 (2022), lets farmworkers unionize by card check. Both apply to Kern County growers and labor contractors.
AB 1066 and AB 2183 at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Overtime law | AB 1066 (Gonzalez), Chapter 313, Statutes of 2016; Labor Code section 857 and following |
| Signed | Sept. 12, 2016 |
| Current overtime rule | 1.5x after 8 hours a day or 40 a week; 2x after 12 hours a day (all employer sizes since Jan. 1, 2025) |
| Enforced by | Labor Commissioner (Division of Labor Standards Enforcement), California Department of Industrial Relations |
| Card-check law | AB 2183 (Stone), Chapter 673, Statutes of 2022, amended by AB 113 (Statutes of 2023, Chapter 7) |
| Administered by | Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) |
| Card-check limits | Capped at 75 certifications; amendments last until Jan. 1, 2028 |
| Key Kern case | Wonderful Nurseries v. ALRB, Fifth District Court of Appeal, Nov. 25, 2025 (published) |
| Status | Overtime fully phased in; card check in effect; federal challenge to mandatory mediation pending |
| Open items | Federal ruling on mandatory mediation; whether lawmakers extend card check past Jan. 1, 2028; new $19.75 farm wage floor starting Jan. 1, 2027 |
Key takeaways
- Since Jan. 1, 2025, every California farm employer, regardless of size, must pay overtime after 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week and double time after 12 hours.
- AB 2183 (2022), as amended by AB 113 in May 2023, lets a union be certified with signed cards from a majority of workers. Certifications are capped at 75 until Jan. 1, 2028.
- In Wonderful Nurseries v. ALRB, decided Nov. 25, 2025, the Fifth District Court of Appeal ruled that the Kern County Superior Court lacked jurisdiction to block the United Farm Workers’ (UFW) certification at the Wasco nursery.
- Kern County’s 2025 crop value rose 12% to about $8.93 billion, with pistachios, grapes, citrus, almonds and carrots each topping $1 billion, according to SJV Sun’s report on the county crop report.
- AB 2646, signed Sept. 30, 2026, sets a $19.75 hourly minimum starting Jan. 1, 2027 for certain H-2A-type seasonal workers and the resident workers who do similar work for the same employer.
- Bills to give farm employers a state tax credit for overtime costs, SB 628 in 2025 and SB 921 in 2026, both failed.
What is California’s farmworker overtime law?
California’s farmworker overtime law is Assembly Bill 1066 by then-Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, chaptered as Chapter 313, Statutes of 2016 on Sept. 12, 2016. It added a chapter to the Labor Code starting at section 857. It phased agricultural workers onto the same daily and weekly overtime thresholds most California employees have.
The phase-in took four steps for each employer size. Employers with more than 25 workers started in 2019 and finished in 2022. Employers with 25 or fewer started three years later and finished on Jan. 1, 2025, according to the Labor Commissioner.
AB 1066 overtime phase-in (time and a half after these hours)
| Effective | 26 or more employees | 25 or fewer employees |
|---|---|---|
| Jan. 1, 2019 | 9.5 hours/day or 55 hours/week | Prior rules |
| Jan. 1, 2020 | 9 hours/day or 50 hours/week | Prior rules |
| Jan. 1, 2021 | 8.5 hours/day or 45 hours/week | Prior rules |
| Jan. 1, 2022 | 8 hours/day or 40 hours/week, plus double time after 12 hours/day | 9.5 hours/day or 55 hours/week |
| Jan. 1, 2023 | Same | 9 hours/day or 50 hours/week |
| Jan. 1, 2024 | Same | 8.5 hours/day or 45 hours/week |
| Jan. 1, 2025 | Same | 8 hours/day or 40 hours/week, plus double time after 12 hours/day |
The phase-in is now complete for everyone. There is no longer a small-farm difference in overtime thresholds.
What does farmworker overtime require in 2026?
Under Wage Order 14, an agricultural employee earns time and a half after 8 hours in a workday or 40 in a workweek and double time after 12 hours in a day. The Labor Commissioner’s agricultural overtime FAQ adds seventh-day rules: time and a half for the first 8 hours on the seventh consecutive workday and double time beyond 8 that day.
Employers count workers the same way they did for the SB 3 minimum wage schedule, the FAQ says. That matters less now that both size groups share the same thresholds. It still decides which schedule applied in back-pay claims for 2022 through 2024.
Overtime is paid on top of a 2026 state minimum wage of $16.90 an hour, which Western Growers’ August 2026 H-2A wage update cites. No state tax credit offsets overtime costs. Sen. Shannon Grove’s SB 628 failed on Feb. 2, 2026. SB 921, by Grove and Sen. Melissa Hurtado, failed in committee on April 22, 2026, by a 1 to 4 vote.
What has the overtime law done to hours and pay?
Many employers capped hours rather than pay the premium, according to research since the law took effect. Rural Migration News reported in July 2024 that directly hired California farmworkers went from working 2.7 hours a week more than the U.S. average in 2016 to 1 hour less by 2023.
The same review cited Census survey data showing usual weekly hours falling from 42.5 in 2018 to 39.6 in 2022. It also cited National Agricultural Workers Survey analysis that found fewer hours and lower weekly earnings, especially for workers who had put in more than 50 hours a week. The authors noted that the survey data rely on worker recall.
For property, labor hours have become a cost to manage, not a free variable. In our view, that pushes Kern operators toward mechanized harvest and packing lines and toward facilities designed around them.
What is AB 2183 card check, and how did AB 113 change it?
AB 2183 lets farmworkers choose a union by submitting signed authorization cards to the ALRB instead of voting in a secret-ballot election. Assemblymember Mark Stone’s bill was signed Sept. 28, 2022 as Chapter 673, Statutes of 2022. As signed, it also created a mail-in ballot option, the Governor’s office said. Gov. Gavin Newsom called farmworkers “the lifeblood of our state” with “the fundamental right to unionize.”
The signing came with a promise of cleanup legislation. AB 113, signed May 15, 2023 and effective immediately, removed the mail-in ballot option and kept the card-check route, called a majority support petition, according to the ALRB’s AB 113 FAQ. A union must show signed cards or petition signatures from a majority of the workers it seeks to represent. The employer then has 48 hours after receiving the petition to respond, including a worker list.
AB 113 also limits certifications from majority support petitions to 75, and the amendments last only until Jan. 1, 2028. AB 2183 allows civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation, or $25,000 where a worker suffers serious economic harm, according to law firm Jackson Lewis.
Once certified, a union can push toward a first contract through mandatory mediation and conciliation (MMC). Western Growers described the process as one anticipated to end with the mediator imposing a collective bargaining agreement. That is why employers fight certification early.
What happened in the Wonderful Nurseries card-check case in Kern County?
The first major test of card check is a Kern case. In February 2024, the UFW filed a majority support petition at Wonderful Nurseries in Wasco, covering roughly 600 workers.
Wonderful Nurseries timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Feb. 2024 | UFW files majority support petition |
| March 1, 2024 | ALRB regional director finds 327 valid cards out of 640 eligible employees |
| March 4, 2024 | ALRB certifies UFW as bargaining representative |
| May 13, 2024 | Wonderful sues in Kern County Superior Court |
| July 18, 2024 | Kern County Superior Court grants a preliminary injunction blocking bargaining |
| Oct. 2024 | Appellate court temporarily lifts the injunction |
| Nov. 25, 2025 | Fifth District reverses and orders the case dismissed for lack of jurisdiction |
| June 11, 2026 | ALRB order approves closing the hearing record on Wonderful’s objections (2024-RM-002) |
Sources: Fifth District opinion, ALRB records, South Kern Sol.
Wonderful alleged that organizers told workers the cards were applications for $600 in federal pandemic relief. About 150 workers signed declarations saying they did not understand the cards, South Kern Sol reported. The allegation is part of Wonderful’s pending objections before the ALRB.
In its published opinion, the Fifth District held that a certification is not a final order under Labor Code section 1160.8. An employer must wait for a final ALRB order from an unfair labor practice case or mediation before going to the Court of Appeal. The court also held that facial constitutional challenges to section 1156.37 must go through that statutory review path.
A separate federal suit by Wonderful Nurseries, Olive Hill Green Houses and Western Growers challenges MMC. ALRB counsel reported in December 2025 that a motion to dismiss had been argued, and the case remained on the Board’s February 2026 litigation list. No ruling has been reported.
How big is Kern County agriculture, and who pays these labor costs?
Kern’s 2025 crop value was about $8.93 billion, up 12% from $7.96 billion in 2024. Harvested acreage fell 4%, from 819,405 to 786,599 acres, SJV Sun reported from the county crop report. Pistachios and grapes each neared $1.4 billion, citrus was just under $1.2 billion, almonds were $1.12 billion and carrots $1.03 billion.
Growers using H-2A guest workers face a federal wage floor too. A U.S. Department of Labor interim final rule, published in the Federal Register on Oct. 2, 2025, shifted the Adverse Effect Wage Rate to occupational wage survey data with skill levels. UnitedAg reported initial California rates of $16.50 for Level I and $18.71 for Level II. Rates were updated again on Aug. 3, 2026, and California’s $16.90 minimum still sets the floor.
What does AB 2646 change for farm wages in 2027?
AB 2646 raises the wage floor for a defined group of farmworkers to $19.75 an hour on Jan. 1, 2027. Assemblymember Maggy Krell’s bill (Chapter 956, Statutes of 2026) was signed Sept. 30, 2026. It adds Labor Code section 1208.
The $19.75 minimum covers nonresident workers approved to work temporarily or seasonally in the state. It also covers “corresponding” workers, meaning residents or other workers who do the same or substantially similar work for the same employer in the same county during the same period. The wage then rises each year by the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment, according to the bill text. For growers that use H-2A labor, the practical read is that the higher floor can reach their local crews too.
What do these laws mean for Kern ag-industrial real estate?
Higher farm labor costs push packers, cold storage operators and processors toward automation and larger facilities. Packing houses, cold storage and processing plants depend on growers whose field labor costs these laws raise, and some are run by growers themselves. A grower or packer who can no longer run long shifts cheaply tends to want more automated lines, larger staging areas and more cold storage capacity to smooth peaks.
For landlords and buyers, labor relations are now a diligence item. Whether a union has been certified at the operating business, whether mediation is pending and how overtime is scheduled at peak all affect a tenant’s margins and credit. These are Kern CRE’s views, and no source ties specific Kern facilities to these laws.
Farmworker housing remains a constraint on the labor supply. Kern CRE’s guide to the 2025 CEQA overhaul covers how the changes treat housing projects. For facility design, see its guide to cold storage and ag-industrial facilities in Kern County. Tariffs add a second cost pressure on growers, covered in how 2025-2026 tariffs are affecting Kern industrial real estate and agriculture. A broader checklist of employer rules is in California employment laws for Kern County employers.
What is still unresolved for Kern growers, packers and owners?
- The $19.75 wage floor under AB 2646, starting Jan. 1, 2027.
- The federal ruling in the MMC challenge brought by Wonderful Nurseries, Olive Hill Green Houses and Western Growers.
- The ALRB’s decision on Wonderful’s objections after the record closed in June 2026.
- Any 2027 bill to extend card check beyond Jan. 1, 2028 or change the 75-certification cap. No extension has been enacted.
- H-2A wage litigation, including the Kansas v. Department of Labor injunction that Western Growers says keeps the prior rule in 17 states.
- New attempts at a state overtime tax credit after SB 628 and SB 921 failed.
Checklist for ag employers and ag-industrial landlords
- Apply 8/40 overtime, double time after 12 hours and seventh-day rules to every crew.
- Audit 2022 to 2024 payroll if you were near the 25-employee line.
- Prepare a 48-hour response plan in case a majority support petition is filed.
- Train supervisors on Agricultural Labor Relations Act unfair labor practice rules. Penalties can reach $25,000 per violation.
- For leased packing or cold storage space, track the tenant’s labor model and union status at renewal.
- Talk to an employment attorney before reacting to any organizing activity.
Frequently asked questions
When does overtime start for farmworkers in California?
Overtime starts after 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week. Since Jan. 1, 2025, every California agricultural employer owes time and a half past those marks and double time after 12 hours in a day, under AB 1066. Seventh-day rules also apply. Larger employers hit this standard in 2022, and small ones followed in 2025.
Do small farms still get a different overtime schedule?
No. The lower-threshold schedule for employers with 25 or fewer workers ended on Jan. 1, 2025. Size still matters for back-pay claims covering 2022 through 2024, when small employers had higher thresholds. Worker counts follow the same method used for the SB 3 minimum wage schedule.
Is there a California tax credit for farmworker overtime?
Not currently. SB 628 by Sen. Shannon Grove would have created a credit for agricultural overtime costs, but it failed on Feb. 2, 2026. Its follow-up, SB 921, died in committee on April 22, 2026.
What is a majority support petition in California agriculture?
It is the card-check route created by AB 2183 in 2022 and revised by AB 113 in 2023. A union files signed cards or signatures from most of the workers it wants to represent. The employer has 48 hours to respond with a worker list, and the ALRB can then certify the union without an election.
Does California farmworker card check expire?
Yes, unless lawmakers act. AB 113’s card-check amendments run only until Jan. 1, 2028, and certifications are capped at 75. No bill extending that date has been enacted, so any extension would need to pass in 2027.
What did the court decide in Wonderful Nurseries v. ALRB?
The Fifth District Court of Appeal ruled on Nov. 25, 2025 that the Kern County Superior Court had no jurisdiction to block the UFW’s certification at the Wasco nursery. A certification is not a final order, so employers must wait for a final ALRB order before seeking review. The court did not decide whether card check is constitutional.
What is mandatory mediation and conciliation for farmworkers?
It is the process a certified union or employer can use when they cannot agree on a first contract. Western Growers has said it is expected to end with a mediator imposing a contract. Wonderful Nurseries, Olive Hill Green Houses and Western Growers are challenging it in federal court, and no ruling has been reported.
How do farm labor laws affect Kern industrial property?
They raise labor costs for the growers, packers and processors who lease Kern packing houses, cold storage and processing plants. Higher costs favor automation and larger facilities, and union status can affect a tenant’s operations and credit. Labor relations and overtime practices are now part of diligence for landlords and buyers.
If you own or lease packing, cold storage or ag-processing space in Kern County and want to understand how these labor rules affect your tenants or your next facility, we can help you compare options. Call Kern CRE at 855-KERN-CRE (855-537-6273) or contact us. Get Kern County CRE news monthly: subscribe to the Kern CRE report.
Sources
- Exceptions to the general overtime law (agricultural employees, Order 14), California Department of Industrial Relations, Labor Commissioner.
- Overtime for Agricultural Workers: Frequently Asked Questions, California Department of Industrial Relations, Labor Commissioner, Oct. 2023.
- California AB 1066 (2015-2016), Agricultural workers: wages, hours, and working conditions, LegiScan.
- California AB 2183 (2021-2022), Agricultural labor relations: elections, LegiScan.
- Alongside Farmworkers at the State Capitol, Governor Newsom Signs Law Expanding Farmworker Union Rights, Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sept. 28, 2022.
- Frequently Asked Questions for AB 113 and Majority Support Petition, Agricultural Labor Relations Board.
- Amendments to California Agricultural Bargaining Process Per Governor’s Agreement with Unions, Jackson Lewis P.C. (California Workplace Law Blog), May 2023.
- Wonderful Nurseries v. Agricultural Labor Relations Board, No. F088515, California Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District (via Justia), Nov. 25, 2025.
- Appellate court rules negotiations between UFW and Wonderful Co. can continue, South Kern Sol, Oct. 25, 2024.
- Public meeting minutes, litigation report, Agricultural Labor Relations Board, Dec. 10, 2025.
- Public meeting notice and agenda (pending litigation list), Agricultural Labor Relations Board, Feb. 18, 2026.
- Minutes and report, Agricultural Labor Relations Board, July 22, 2026.
- ALRB Orders Mediation in UFW v. Wonderful Nurseries, LLC, Western Growers Association, July 18, 2024.
- California SB 628 (2025-2026), LegiScan.
- California SB 921 (2025-2026), LegiScan.
- Impact of Overtime on California Farm Worker Hours and Earnings, Rural Migration News (Cornell and UC Davis), July 17, 2024.
- Kern County crops gain value as farmland decreases, SJV Sun, Oct. 1, 2026.
- Revised AEWR Methodology: Key Impacts for California H-2A Employers, UnitedAg, Oct. 1, 2025.
- Adverse Effect Wage Rate Methodology for the Temporary Employment of H-2A Nonimmigrants in Non-Range Occupations, Federal Register (U.S. Department of Labor), Oct. 2, 2025.
- Special Update: New H-2A Wage Rates Effective August 3, Western Growers Association, Aug. 3, 2026.
- AB 2646: Employment: minimum wages: agricultural workers, CalMatters Digital Democracy, chaptered Sept. 30, 2026.
- California AB 2646, enrolled text, LegiScan, Aug. 2026.
About this article
Kern CRE prepared this article with help from AI research and writing tools. An editor reviewed the draft, checked its facts against the sources linked above and edited it for accuracy and clarity. It is general information, not legal, tax, investment or financial advice; farm labor and Agricultural Labor Relations Act questions are fact-specific, so talk with a qualified employment attorney before acting.