One out of eleven farmers in California is an NFIB member, and they are telling us this bill will have a devastating impact on their small, independent farms and farmworkers. This is why SB 1066 was defeated earlier this year. This freshly gutted-and-amended version does nothing to alleviate the serious concerns of our farmers across the state.
California is already one of only a few states that require any overtime pay for agricultural workers, and our requirement for daily overtime is already the most expensive. Our members and industry experts estimate AB 1066 will ultimately hurt the agricultural economy and its workers by resulting in $4,500 in reduced annual income per farmworker; $5.4 billion loss in crop production; and a total of 78,000 lost jobs.
This bad bill died earlier this year for a reason. NFIB is frustrated to see bad public policy revived in the final days of the legislative session just because one legislator wants a political victory. We will be urging members of the State Assembly to reject this bill to protect our small, independent farmers and their workers from additional unnecessary mandates.