Ensure Equal Rights for Food and Farm Workers

Policy Priorities State Examples Toolkits

Background

The majority of people who harvest and process the nation’s food are immigrants, whether permanent residents, seasonal visa holders, or undocumented workers. According to the most recent federal National Agricultural Workers Survey, completed in 2022, two-thirds of crop workers are foreign-born.^[1] Other research indicates that 20% of livestock workers and nearly half of all meatpacking industry workers are foreign-born.^[2] The Trump Administration’s hostility to immigrants and stated intention to conduct mass deportations will have vast and far-reaching impacts on the U.S. food system, alongside the economy as a whole.

Although immigration falls under federal law and administration, state law and enforcement mechanisms often determine the real world consequences. According to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, only Oregon and Illinois have comprehensive state laws restricting transfers by state and local law enforcement of people to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Washington, California, New Jersey, and a few other states have limitations but still affirmatively transfer many immigrants directly from state and local officials to immigration detention. In this uncertain moment, state policymakers should do all they can to ensure the security of the immigrants in their state.

Even apart from current threats based on immigration status, farm and food workers have long been treated as an underclass, lacking full rights and the employment protections of other sectors. Federal law exempts agriculture workers from basic workplace protections, and most states follow that precedent.^[3] Further, workers in rural communities, where farm and food work may be one of the only options, are less likely to live in one of the 30 states that have enacted a minimum wage above the federal minimum^[4] – and therefore are more likely than their urban counterparts to earn less than $15 per hour.^[5]

Food and farmworkers have long been on the front lines of disasters. From COVID-19 to climate events, farmworkers often lack protections from both ongoing workplace dangers and disasters.^[6] Policy efforts at both the federal and state level have provided some protections from extreme heat, smoke, and weather events, but more is needed, as are protections from toxic chemicals and pesticides. Pesticides can be especially dangerous for female farmworkers,^[7] as exposure can impact reproductive health.^[8]

Citing labor shortages, meatpackers and other companies have increasingly used forced and unpaid labor by incarcerated people in recent years.^[9] Federal law bans products produced by prison labor from interstate commerce, but agricultural products are exempt. Some states have tried to expand opportunities for prison labor,^[10] while some companies have pitched unpaid work in a processing plant as a rehabilitation program for inmates.^[11] These efforts should be opposed at all levels.

Finally, even child labor is back on the table in some states, as legislatures have sought to weaken child labor laws. Worker safety exemptions in agriculture make it one of the most dangerous sectors for children.^[12]

In 2023, seven bills to weaken child labor protections were introduced in six states (Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota). In Arkansas, a bill repealing restrictions on work for 14- and 15-year-olds has now been signed into law, and a Minnesota bill sought to allow children as young as 16 to work on construction sites. Ten states have introduced, considered, or passed legislation rolling back protections for young workers in just the past two years.^[13]

For more, please see SiX’s 2024 report, How States Can Stop the Corporate Campaign To Roll Back Child Labor Protections.

^[1] U.S. Department of Labor. National Agricultural Workers Survey 2021-2022. https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ETA/naws/pdfs/NAWS%20Research%20Report%2017.pdf

^[2] “Tending to America’s Food Supply: The Essential Role of Immigrants in America’s Meat and Dairy Industries.” American Immigration Council, 5 July 2022, www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/tending-americas-food-supply-meat-dairy-industries.

^[3] Samantha Mikolajczyk. “Collective Bargaining Rights for Farmworkers.” National Agricultural Law Center, 14 July 2022, nationalaglawcenter.org/collective-bargaining-rights-for-farmworkers.

^[4] Economic Policy Institute. Minimum Wage Tracker. 1 Jan. 2025 https://www.epi.org/minimum-wage-tracker/.

^[5] Willingham, Caius Z. “Rural Workers of Color Need a $15 Federal Minimum Wage.” Center for American Progress, 1 Sep. 2021, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/rural-workers-color-need-15-federal-minimum-wage/.

^[6] Nargi, Lela. “Climate Change Has Direct Negative Impacts on Farmworker Health.” The Counter, 30 Mar. 2021, https://thecounter.org/climate-change-direct-negative-impacts-farmworker-health/.

^[7] Bauer, Mary, and Mónica Ramírez. “Injustice On Our Plates: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Food Industry.” Southern Poverty Law Center, 8 Nov. 2010, https://www.splcenter.org/20101107/injustice-our-plates.

^[8] Tagawa, Kayo, et al. “Cancer Incidence in Agricultural Workers: Findings from an International Consortium of Agricultural Cohort Studies (AGRICOH).” Environment International, vol. 157, 21 Aug. 2021, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412021004505?via%3Dihub.

^[9] Brown, H. Claire. “How Corporations Buy – and Sell – Food Made with Prison Labor.” The Counter, 9 Sep. 2021, https://thecounter.org/how-corporations-buy-and-sell-food-made-with-prison-labor/.

^[10] Brown, Nathan. “Lawmakers to Vote Wednesday on Prison Labor Bill.” Idaho Press, 3 Feb. 2020, https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/lawmakers-to-vote-wednesday-on-prison-labor-bill/article_c882d79a-ae8f-552d-b95d-55ff1df17fdf.html.

^[11] Harris, Amy Julia, and Shoshana Walter. “Rehab Scam: Defendants in Court-Ordered Rehab Work for Free.” Reveal, 30 June 2021, https://revealnews.org/article/they-thought-they-were-going-to-rehab-they-ended-up-in-chicken-plants/.

^[12] “The US Should End Child Labor in Agriculture.” Human Rights Watch, 4 May 2023, www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/04/us-should-end-child-labor-agriculture.

^[13] “Child Labor Laws Are Under Attack in States Across the Country: Amid Increasing Child Labor Violations, Lawmakers Must Act to Strengthen Standards.” Economic Policy Institute, www.epi.org/publication/child-labor-laws-under-attack.

Federal: Pass the PRO Act and Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, the most comprehensive worker empowerment legislation since the 1930s. The bills expand the definitions of unfair labor practices to include efforts that prevent collective organizing, broaden the scope of who fair labor standards apply to, expand whistleblower protections, and other essential reforms.
Federal: The Workforce Mobility Act prohibits using non-compete agreements in the context of commercial enterprises, except under certain circumstances.
Federal: Pass the Child Labor Prevention Act to increase fines for child labor violations and prevent independent contractor loopholes for employers.^[14]
State: Enact a minimum wage above the federal minimum wage.
State: Eliminate subminimum wages for youth.
State: Allow workers in domestic and agricultural work to unionize—without state action, these occupations can be excluded from federal labor laws.
State: Enact a farmworker bill of rights and labor standards.
State: Provide agriculture workers basic labor rights, including minimum wage, overtime pay, and the right to organize.
State: Protect workers from dangerous working conditions, including COVID-19, and weather such as heat and wildfire smoke, which will get worse in a warming climate.
State: Make it unlawful to force an inmate to work against their will.
State: Require prison industries to pay a federal minimum inmate wage to incarcerated persons doing work.

^[14] “Senator Baldwin, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Help Stop Child Labor | U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.” Tammy Baldwin, 3 Mar. 2023, www.baldwin.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-baldwin-colleagues-introduce-legislation-to-help-stop-child-labor.

State Examples

Oregon (2021 OR HB 3265) and Illinois (5 ILCS 805) have comprehensive state laws restricting transfers of people to the U.S. Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement Agency.
Georgia (2021 GA SB 24), Iowa (2021 IA HF 122), North Carolina (2021 NC HB 612), and Oregon (2021 OR HB 3551) have all considered legislation to raise the state minimum wage and establish annual cost-of-living updates to ensure that the minimum wage keeps up with the economy.
Colorado (2021 CO SB 87) legislators enacted a Farmworker Bill of Rights, which eliminates the minimum wage and overtime exemption for farmworkers; grants the right to organize and join labor unions; and offers new protections against heat stress, illnesses, and injury.
New York (2019 NY A 8419) passed a Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act that provides farm laborers with collective bargaining rights, a maximum of 60 hours’ work and minimum 24 hours’ rest per week, overtime pay, unemployment insurance, sanitary temporary housing, and workers’ compensation benefits. New Jersey passed a similar new Farm Labor Equality Act (2024 NJ A 4620).
Washington (2021 WA SB 5172) passed an agriculture worker overtime law, and Maine (2021 ME LD 1022) and Oregon (2021 OR HB 2358) worked on similar bills.
Florida (2019 FL HB 1285) considered a bill to address heat-related illness, and legislation enacted in California (2021 CA AB 73) protects farm- and fieldworkers from dangerous wildfire smoke.
New York passed the NYS Health & Essential Rights Act (2021 NY 1034B) that created an Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA) state standard for health and safety from COVID-19 and other airborne infectious diseases for employees in the state.
New York (2021 NY S416) has considered a bill to make it unlawful to force an inmate to work against their will and to prohibit a public entity from profiting from unpaid inmate labor.
Mississippi (2021 MS HB 408) has considered a bill to require prison industries to pay a federal minimum inmate wage to incarcerated persons doing work.
In California (2020 CA AB 2147), where incarcerated people are often enlisted to fight wildfires, legislators enacted a law to allow these people to have their records expunged at the end of their sentence, to make it easier for them to find post-prison work in emergency response.
New Jersey is considering a bill (2024 NJ A.4822) that would strengthen child labor standards and penalties for violating them.
Illinois passed the Child Labor Law of 2024 (2024 IL SB 3646), setting strict limits of work hours and enhancing protections overall.

Toolkits

Inspired? Ready to dig in on these issues with your rural neighbors? Our practical communications toolkits will help you connect with new communities through common values. The toolkits provide examples on narrative framing, press release templates, sample talking points, and more.

Click here for the communications toolkit on Growing Equitable Food Systems.