by Richard Stup, Elizabeth Higgins, Jason Karszes, Bradley Rickard and Christopher Wolf

New York farmers are putting much thought into adapting their businesses in response to the state’s farm labor overtime requirements. Cornell researchers are studying how farms adapted and continue to adapt to changing regulatory requirements and to an overall tight and competitive labor market. A multi-year project called “New York Farm Workforce in Transition” is currently underway with objectives to help farm employers adapt in ways that will support farm profitability, increase employee productivity, and encourage employee retention.

A new report is available that focuses on how New York farms adapted in  2020 as the first 60-hour overtime threshold was implemented for farm labor in the state. The report “How New York Farmers Adapted to New Farm Labor Overtime Requirements” explores the strategies that specialty crop and dairy farms used to respond to the regulation, and employer perceptions about how overtime affected employee recruiting and retention. Access the report here: How New York Farmers Adapted to New Farm Labor Overtime Requirements.  More data and analysis from this research project will be published as it becomes available.